Release Notes for OPAL 2021.1

Bugfixes in OPAL 2021.1

• Opal-T writing of LossDataSink if executed in parallel (#585 (closed))
• Transversely shifted distribution in temporal monitors (#609 (closed))
• Floating point comparisons in BoundaryGeometry (#611 (closed))
• Header of loss output file in ASCII format (#620 (closed))
• Fix for FROMFILE Distribution (#622 (closed))
• Get correct output of VALUE, OPTION->AUTOPHASE (#635 (closed))
• Loss files overwritten for collimators (#636 (closed))
• Fix algorithm for computation of standard deviation (#638 (closed))
• Fix for Sampler (#644 (closed))
• Fix for normal component formula for OCTUPOLE element (#653 (closed))
• Fix for element output files (#657 (closed))

New features in OPAL 2021.1

• New Undulator element with its own FDTD electromagnetic solver, making use of the (MITHRA) library (#535 (closed))
• LOWENERGYTHR attribute (in [MeV]) for energy loss calculation by PARTICLEMATTERINTERACTION command (#83 (closed), #142 (closed))
• Energy loss calculation and beam scattering are available for all light ions (#634 (closed))
• Stopping power at low energy region (#634 (closed))
• ALPHA particles are supported in BEAM command (#634 (closed))
• ENABLEVTK option (default true) to control writing of voxel mesh output (#647 (closed))
• OUTFN attribute has been added to Cyclotron and Source elements (#650 (closed))
• Gas stripping is now available for DEUTERON beams and H2P beams in AIR (#665 (closed))

Code improvements

• C++ revision to C++17 (#607 (closed))
• Enables extra error checking in the form of precondition assertion (#627 (closed))
• New Attribute type PreDefinedString (string enum) (#654 (closed))

Input file related changes

• RING field map has been explicitly added as a cyclotron TYPE (#626 (closed))
• COLLIMATOR and DEGRADER TYPE of PARTICLEMATTERINTERACTION has been renamed as SCATTERING (#633 (closed))
• BEAMSTRIPPING element has been renamed as VACUUM (#633 (closed))
• Particle masses supported in BEAM command are defined as standard constants (#646 (closed))
• Since version 2.4 the DISTRIBUTION momentum input is changed to momentum (instead of energy). To avoid confusion, this is also made clear in the DISTRIBUTION command, INPUTMOUNITS = EV is changed to INPUTMOUNITS = EVOVERC (#649 (closed))
• String input only accepted with quotes (#495 (closed)), CONST STRING fmap = "fieldmaps/someFM.T7";
• Variable names are now accepted for string attributes (#495 (closed)), cav1: RFCavity, FMAPFN=fmap, ...;
• The values of MB_BINNING and AMR_MG_NORM attributes have been changed (#495 (closed), OPAL/documentation/manual#58 (closed))
• BEAM energy needs to be explicitly specified, P0 is no longer used as default (#655 (closed))

Output file related changes

• More information has been added to the HDF5 file written by monitors (#503 (closed))
• The unit of time in loss output file is changed from [ns] to [s] (#640 (closed))
• The header of ASCII loss output has been modified (#650 (closed), pyOPALTools#99 (closed))
• DumpFields and DumpEMFields print attributes info in stdout (#651 (closed))
• The units of cyclotron output field map 'eb.out' have been changed to [m] and [deg] (#662 (closed))