historic notes

man/man1/starlab.1

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+.TH STARLAB 1NEMO "27 December 2023"
+
+.SH "SYNOPSIS"
+.B program -opt [val]  .\!.\!.
+.br
+.B program --help
+
+.SH "DESCRIPTION"
+Starlab is a software package for simulating the evolution of dense
+stellar systems and analyzing the resultant data. It is a collection
+(currently about 200)
+of loosely coupled programs (``tools'') linked at the level of the
+UNIX operating system. The tools share a common data structure and can
+be combined in arbitrarily complex ways to study the dynamics of star
+clusters and galactic nuclei. 
+
+Starlab features the following basic modules: 
+
+* Three- and four-body automated scattering packages, constructed
+  around a time-symmetrized Hermite integration scheme.
+
+* A collection of initialization and analysis routines for use with
+  general N-body systems.
+
+* A general Kepler package for manipulation of two-body orbits.
+
+* N-body integrators incorporating both 2nd-order leapfrog and
+  4th-order Hermite integration algorithms.
+
+* Kira, a general N-body integrator incorporating recursive coordinate
+  transformations, allowing uniform treatment of hierarchical systems
+  of arbitrary complexity within a general N-body framework.
+
+* SeBa, a stellar and binary evolution package, allowing to follow in
+  time the evolution of any star or binary from arbitrary start
+  conditions. The package is fully implemented within kira in a
+  comprehensive and transparent fashion (versions 3.0 and above).
+
+A novel aspect of Starlab is its very flexible external data
+representation, which guarantees that tools can be combined in
+arbitrary ways, without loss of data or internally-generated
+comments. Thus, two tools connected by UNIX pipes may operate on
+different portions of the same data set, even though neither
+understands the data structures, or even the physical variables, used
+by the other. Unknown data are simply passed through unchanged to the
+next tool in the chain.
+
+
+
+.SH "EXAMPLES"
+
+1. Create a 500-particle Plummer model, with numbered stars, scaled to standard dynamical units
+.EX
+
+    makeplummer -n 500 -i
+
+.EE
+
+2. Create a 500-particle W0 = 5 King model with a Miller-Scalo mass
+spectrum between 0.1 and 20 solar masses, then rescale to unit total
+mass, total energy -0.25, and virial ratio 0.5 and display the results
+graphically
+
+.EX
+
+    makeking -n 500 -w 5 -i -u \\
+	| makemass -F Miller_Scalo -l 0.1 -u 20 \\
+	| scale -m 1 -e -0.25 -q 0.5 \\
+	| xstarplot -l 5 -P .5
+
+.EE
+
+3. Perform a series of 100 3-body scattering experiments involving an
+equal-mass circular binary and a double-mass incomer, with impact
+parameter equal to the binary semimajor axis, relative velocity at
+infinity half that needed for zero total energy, and all other
+parameters chosen randomly, and display the results as a movie
+
+.EX
+
+    scatter3 -m 0.5 -e 0 -M 1 -r 1 -v 0.5 \\
+             -n 100 -C 5 -D 0.1 \\
+	| xstarplot -l 4
+
+.EE
+
+.SH "INSTALL"
+
+Within NEMO the command
+.EX
+
+   mknemo starlab
+
+.EE
+should be able to install starlab. See $NEMO/src/scripts/mknemo.d/starlab for the implementation.
+
+
+.SH "FILES"
+.nf
+$NEMO/src/scripts/mknemo.d/starlab - example install script (can be run via mknemo)
+$NEMO/local/starlab - root of source code after install
+https://github.com/amusecode/Starlab/ - source code since 2022/23
+.fi
+
+.SH "SEE ALSO"
+nemo(1NEMO), zeno(1NEMO)
+
+.SH "AUTHOR"
+Piet Hut, Steve McMillan, Jun Makino,  Simon Portegies Zwart
+
+
+.SH "HISTORY"
+Starlab was preceded by NEMO, and arguably succeeded by AMUSE.
+.nf
+
+1.0, the original version, June 1993
+1.1, bug fixes and enhancements to 1.0, March 1994
+2.0, January 1995
+2.1, first version of kira, mid-1995
+3.0, initial implementation of stellar and binary evolution, mid-1997
+4.0, major internal reorganization and algorithm development
+4.4.4 starlab preserved via github (2022/23)
+.fi