MC/DC is a performant, scalable, and machine-portable Python-based Monte Carlo neutron transport software currently developed in the Center for Exascale Monte Carlo Neutron Transport (CEMeNT).
Our documentation on installation, contribution, and a brief user guide is on Read the Docs.
We recommend using Python virtual environments (venv) or some other environment manager (e.g. conda) to manage the MC/DC installation. This avoids the need for admin access when installing MC/DC's dependencies and allows greater configurability for developers. For most users working in a venv, MC/DC can be installed via pip:
pip install mcdcFor developers or users on HPC machines, mpi4py is often distributed as part of an HPC machines given venv.
The pip mpi4py distribution commonly has errors when building due to incompatible local MPI dependencies it builds off of. While pip does have some remedy for this, we recommend the following:
- Mac users: we recommend
openmpiis installed via homebrew (note that more reliable mpi4py distribution can also be found on homebrew), alternatively you can usecondaif you don't have admin privileges; - Linux users: we recommend
openmpiis installed via a root package manager if possible (e.g.sudo apt install openmpi) or a conda distribution (e.g.conda install openmpi) - HPC users and developers on any system: On HPC systems that do not supply a suitable venv,
mpi4pymay need to be built using the system's existingmpiinstallation. Installing MC/DC using the install script we've included will handle that for you by installing dependencies using conda rather than pip. It also takes care of the Numba patch and can configure the continuous energy data library, if you have access.
Running MC/DC performantly in Numba mode requires a patch to a single Numba file. If you installed MC/DC with the install script, this patch has already been taken care of. If you installed via pip, we have a patch script will make the necessary changes for you:
- Download the
patch.shfile here (If you've cloned MC/DC's GitHub repository, you already have this file in your MCDC/ directory). - In your active conda environment, run
bash patch_numba.sh. If you manage your environment with conda, you will not need admin privileges.
MC/DC can be executed in different modes: via pure python or via a jit compiled version (Numba mode).
Both modes have their use cases; in general, running in Numba mode is faster but more restrictive than via pure python.
To run a hypothetical input deck (for example this slab wall problem) in pure python mode run:
python input.pySimulation output files are saved to the directory that contains input.py.
MC/DC supports transport kernel acceleration via Numba's Just-in-Time compilation (currently only the CPU implementation). The overhead time for compilation when running in Numba mode is about 15 to 80 seconds, depending on the physics and features simulated. Once compiled, the simulation runs MUCH faster than in Python mode.
To run in Numba mode:
python input.py --mode=numbaMC/DC supports parallel simulation via MPI4Py. As an example, to run on 36 processes in Numba mode with SLURM:
srun -n 36 python input.py --mode=numbaFor systems that do not use SLURM (i.e., a local system) try mpiexec or mpirun in its stead.
We welcome any contributions to this code base. Please keep in mind that we do take our code of conduct seriously. Our development structure is fork-based: a developer makes a personal fork of this repo, commits contributions to their personal fork, then opens a pull request when they're ready to merge their changes into the main code base. Their contributions will then be reviewed by the primary developers. For more information on how to do this, see our contribution guide.
Our documentation is in the early stages of development, so thank you for bearing with us while we bring it up to snuff. If you find a novel bug or anything else you feel we should be aware of, feel free to open an issue.
MC/DC uses continuous integration (CI) to run its unit and regression test suite. MC/DC also includes verification and performance tests, which are built and run nightly on internal systems. You can find specifics on how to run these tests locally here.
To provide proper attribution to MC/DC, please cite
@article{morgan2024mcdc,
title = {Monte {Carlo} / {Dynamic} {Code} ({MC}/{DC}): {An} accelerated {Python} package for fully transient neutron transport and rapid methods development},
author = {Morgan, Joanna Piper and Variansyah, Ilham and Pasmann, Samuel L. and Clements, Kayla B. and Cuneo, Braxton and Mote, Alexander and Goodman, Charles and Shaw, Caleb and Northrop, Jordan and Pankaj, Rohan and Lame, Ethan and Whewell, Benjamin and McClarren, Ryan G. and Palmer, Todd S. and Chen, Lizhong and Anistratov, Dmitriy Y. and Kelley, C. T. and Palmer, Camille J. and Niemeyer, Kyle E.},
journal = {Journal of Open Source Software},
volume = {9},
number = {96},
year = {2024},
pages = {6415},
url = {https://joss.theoj.org/papers/10.21105/joss.06415},
doi = {10.21105/joss.06415},
}
which should render something like this
Morgan et al. (2024). Monte Carlo / Dynamic Code (MC/DC): An accelerated Python package for fully transient neutron transport and rapid methods development. Journal of Open Source Software, 9(96), 6415. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.06415.
MC/DC is licensed under a BSD-3 clause license. We believe in open source software.