1.4.0 Release Candidate

[haykh]

TODO

• Custom weight distribution Custom weight distribution  #155
• Load balancing Dynamic domain decomposition #151

New features

• Single particle QED emission #174
• Custom (user-defined) emission policy #188
• Spatial sorting of particles #181
• Support for external EM fields in SR #183
• New pgens/examples/ category with usage examples of specific features.
  • custom_energy_distribution
  • custom_spatial_distribution
  • match_fix_field_boundaries
  • external_fields
  • custom_emission
  • atmosphere
  • replenish_injector
  • custom_particle_update
  • piston
  • moving_window
• Piston #186
• Moving window #196

Breaking changes for the users

• C++20 is the new standard, CMake 3.5+ is now required (per 98669a2)
• Unnecessary inheritances of arch::ProblemGenerator are now removed
• Unnecessary inheritances of arch::EnergyDistribution, arch::SpatialDistribution are removed

API changes for the users

• [radiation] added to input substituting the previous [algorithms.synchrotron] etc.
• [species.cooling] is now [species.radiative_drag].
• traits::compatible_with in PGen is now ::traits::pgen::compatible_with, imported from a header #include "traits/pgen.h". All default pgens have been changed.
• pgen::ext_force is substituted with pgen::ExternalFields to also support external field components ::ex1, ::ex2, ::ex3, ::bx1, ::bx2, ::bx3 (external em fields) on top of the already supported ::fx1, ::fx2, ::fx3 (external force). Example usage included in pgens/examples/external_fields.

Architectural changes for the devs

• C++20 concept-s and requires-clauses replace the sfinae tests C++20 Concepts #161
• plog and toml11 headers are now explicitly in the include directory and are fixed fc13991.
• Parameter reading is fully modularized.
• Cooling changed to RadiativeDrag; now accepts multiple entries.
• PrtlPusher similarly changed to ParticlePusher; now accepts composition of different values.
• Contstructor for kernel::[sr/gr]::Pusher_kernel are now cleaner accepting auxiliary classes: PusherParams, PusherArrays, and PusherBoundaries as well as Policies.
• additional unit tests added for the problem generator traits.
• srpic.hpp and grpic.hpp are now subdivided into different dedicated header files with explicit functions.
• kernel::sr::Pusher_kernel now accepts a set of extra policies, which encode (a) whether to apply atmospheric boundary conditions, (b) custom particle update, (c) external fields/forces, (d) emission policies.
• code styles are now enforced with clang-tidy, clang-format and cmake-format.
• added mandatory pre-merge test scripts to be run before any merge takes place.

Bug fixes

• [BUG] Memory allocation error from Kokkos random number generator #132 (fixed in v1.3.3)
• [BUG] Restart fails when reading integer time variable #169
• fixed issue of writing checkpoint with non-zero n_pld_r #175
• FIXED boundaries for fields now properly transform the passed field components from tetrad basis to code units (per 1d34ab9)
• v1.3 GRPIC vacuum solution is unstable at high resolutions -- GRPIC now uses "no gradient" conditions for Dr on the axes inside the Ampere kernel
• [BUG] mass is not accounted in computation of bulk flow velocity #170
• [BUG] GRPIC enery mometum tensor output is not calculated correctly #173
• GlobalInjector now works with the tracking
• Fix particle ID counter in writing checkpoint #199
• Significant comm speedup for particles Fix GPU aware MPI #202
• GPU-aware MPI fixed on Intel PVC nodes Fix GPU aware MPI #202

Minor changes

• bumped all dependency version (incl. Kokkos to 5.0.0, and ADIOS2 to 2.11.0)
• support for 2D arrays in input file (per e207373)
• -D TESTS=ON can now be used together with pgen to also compile all unit tests.
• GRPIC now compiles when no init_flds is present in pgen (per f13a68d)
• stdc++fs now only links with non-AppleClang compilers, since on Apple Clang it's linked by default, and will raise an error if linked explicitly.
• clear_interval can now be controlled per each species.
• stats output which is written into the .csv file now has a better print precision (per 5603df3).
• Consistent Integer Sizes across different categories #201 npart_t and ncells_t are now tied to uint32_t. new counter (loop index) types introduced: cellidx_t and prtlidx_t
  new range types introduced: cell_range_t and prtl_slice_t; use of implicit size_t is minimized

[haykh]

@alisagk could you add a comment in the main message on changes to GR axes bcs?