Inputs (namelist) reference

dkx reads Fortran-style namelist files, typically named input.namelist. The input surface is compatible with the mature SFINCS-style ecosystem so equilibria, scans, and case descriptions carry over, but this page documents the public dkx interface in its own right and enumerates every parameter the canonical parser recognizes.

How the namelist parser works

The canonical typed parser is dkx.inputs.SfincsInput. Group names are matched case-insensitively; each supported parameter is a typed field whose Python type is inferred from its default (tuple \(\to\) float array, bool, int, float, else str). Two behaviors are worth stating up front:

• Species arrays accept indexed assignment (Zs(2) = 6.0) and are folded into vectors; the species count is the number of Zs entries.

• Unknown keys are not an error. A key that is not a typed field of a recognized group is dropped from the typed struct but retained in SfincsInput.raw; an unknown group is likewise retained in raw but never typed. “Supported” below means specifically the typed fields.

The tables give the Fortran namelist name, default, and type for every typed field, grouped by namelist.

&general

Name	Default	Type / meaning
RHSMode	1	int; 1 = profile solve, 2 = 3×3 transport matrix, 3 = monoenergetic 2×2
ambipolarSolve	.false.	bool; solve for the ambipolar \(E_r\)
ambipolarSolveOption	2	int; root-finder option (2 = Brent, canonical)
NEr_ambipolarSolve	20	int; number of \(E_r\) samples
Er_search_tolerance_dx / Er_search_tolerance_f	1e-8 / 1e-10	float; root-find tolerances
Er_min / Er_max	-100 / 100	float; \(E_r\) search bracket
outputFilename	"sfincsOutput.h5"	str; output file name
solveSystem	.true.	bool; solve (vs geometry/grids only)
saveMatlabOutput / saveMatricesAndVectorsInBinary	.false.	bool; legacy dump toggles

&geometryParameters

Name	Default	Type / meaning
geometryScheme	1	int; geometry family (Geometry models and loading)
equilibriumFile	""	str; .bc / wout path (aliases JGboozer_file, JGboozer_file_NonStelSym, fort996boozer_file)
GHat / IHat / iota	3.7481 / 0.0 / 0.4542	float; Boozer flux functions and rotational transform (analytic schemes)
B0OverBBar	1.0	float; reference field ratio
psiAHat / aHat	0.15596 / 0.5585	float; edge flux and minor-radius normalizations
epsilon_t / epsilon_h / epsilon_antisymm	-0.07053 / 0.05067 / 0.0	float; scheme-1 toroidal / helical / antisymmetric ripple amplitudes
helicity_l / helicity_n	2 / 10	int; scheme-1 helical mode numbers
helicity_antisymm_l / helicity_antisymm_n	1 / 0	int; scheme-1 antisymmetric mode numbers
NPeriods	0	int; field periods (0 = infer from scheme)
min_Bmn_to_load / rippleScale	0.0 / 1.0	float; Boozer harmonic filter / ripple scaling
inputRadialCoordinate	3	int; surface label (0=ψ, 1=ψ_N, 2=r̂, 3=r_N, 4=Er)
inputRadialCoordinateForGradients	4	int; gradient label
psiHat_wish / psiN_wish / rHat_wish / rN_wish	-1 / 0.25 / -1 / 0.5	float; requested surface (normradius_wish aliases rN_wish)
VMECRadialOption / VMEC_Nyquist_option	1 / 1	int; VMEC radial-interpolation and Nyquist conventions

&speciesParameters

Species arrays default to empty tuples; give one entry per species. All arrays are float arrays. Gradients are accepted in every radial coordinate.

Name	Meaning
Zs / mHats / nHats / THats	charge, mass, density, temperature (per species)
dNHatdpsiHats / dNHatdpsiNs / dNHatdrHats / dNHatdrNs	density gradient in each radial coordinate
dTHatdpsiHats / dTHatdpsiNs / dTHatdrHats / dTHatdrNs	temperature gradient in each radial coordinate
withAdiabatic / adiabaticZ / adiabaticMHat / adiabaticNHat / adiabaticTHat	adiabatic species toggle (default .false.) and its Z / m / n / T
withNBIspec / NBIspecZ / NBIspecNHat	NBI fast-species toggle (default .false.) and its Z / n

&physicsParameters

Name	Default	Type / meaning
Delta / alpha / nu_n	4.5694e-3 / 1.0 / 8.330e-3	float; drift-kinetic ordering parameters (Normalizations and units)
EParallelHat	0.0	float; inductive parallel field \(\hat E_\parallel\)
dPhiHatdpsiHat / dPhiHatdpsiN / dPhiHatdrHat / dPhiHatdrN / Er	0.0	float; radial-electric-field drive in each coordinate
collisionOperator	0	int; 0 = full Fokker–Planck, 1 = pitch-angle scattering, 3 = improved Sugama model operator (momentum- and energy-conserving)
constraintScheme	-1	int; source/constraint scheme (−1 = auto by collision operator)
includeXDotTerm	.true.	bool; \(E_r\) energy drift \(\dot x\,\partial_x\)
includeElectricFieldTermInXiDot	.true.	bool; \(E_r\) pitch drift \(\dot\xi\,\partial_\xi\)
useDKESExBDrift	.false.	bool; DKES (\(\langle B^2\rangle\)) vs full (\(B^2\)) ExB
include_fDivVE_term	.false.	bool; compressible ExB correction
includeTemperatureEquilibrationTerm	.false.	bool; add \(C_{ab}[f_{aM},f_{bM}]\) to the RHS
includePhi1	.false.	bool; enable the quasineutrality / \(\Phi_1\) block
includePhi1InKineticEquation	.true.	bool; \(\Phi_1\) terms in the DKE (requires includePhi1)
includePhi1InCollisionOperator	.false.	bool; poloidal density factor in collisions
quasineutralityOption	1	int; 1 = full Boltzmann, 2 = EUTERPE adiabatic
readExternalPhi1	.false.	bool; treat \(\Phi_1\) as a fixed external field (linear solve, no Newton iteration)
nuPrime / EStar	1.0 / 0.0	float; monoenergetic collisionality / electric field (RHSMode=3)
magneticDriftScheme	0	int; tangential magnetic drift (schemes 0–9, matching Fortran v3)
Krook	0.0	float; optional non-conserving drag

&resolutionParameters

Name	Default	Meaning
Ntheta / Nzeta	15 / 15	poloidal / toroidal grid points
Nxi	16	Legendre pitch modes
NL	4	Rosenbluth-potential Legendre modes (Nxi_for_x floor)
Nx	5	speed-grid nodes (forced to 1 for RHSMode=3)
xMax / NxPotentialsPerVth	5.0 / 40.0	speed-grid extent / Rosenbluth potential resolution
solverTolerance	1e-6	linear-solve residual target
forceOddNthetaAndNzeta	.true.	round grid sizes to odd

The Fortran convergence-scan ramp arrays (NthetaNumRuns, Nx_min, …) have no typed fields; if present they are retained in raw only and are not acted upon.

&otherNumericalParameters

Name	Default	Meaning
thetaDerivativeScheme / zetaDerivativeScheme	2 / 2	angular finite-difference scheme
ExBDerivativeSchemeTheta / ExBDerivativeSchemeZeta	0 / 0	ExB derivative scheme
magneticDriftDerivativeScheme	3	magnetic-drift derivative / upwinding scheme
xDotDerivativeScheme	0	speed-derivative scheme (canonical: 0)
xGridScheme / xPotentialsGridScheme / xGrid_k	5 / 2 / 0.0	speed-grid family and weight exponent \(k\)
Nxi_for_x_option	1	\(N_\xi\)-for-\(x\) ramp (Numerics and algorithms)
useIterativeLinearSolver	.true.	iterative vs direct (alias useIterativeSolver)
whichParallelSolverToFactorPreconditioner / PETSCPreallocationStrategy	1 / 1	legacy PETSc knobs (retained for compatibility)

&preconditionerOptions

Name	Default	Meaning
preconditioner_species	1	1 = self-collisions only in the coarse operator
preconditioner_x / preconditioner_x_min_L	1 / 0	x-diagonal collisions in the preconditioner
preconditioner_xi	1	drop L±1 streaming coupling in the preconditioner
preconditioner_theta / preconditioner_zeta	0 / 0	angular coarsening
preconditioner_theta_min_L / preconditioner_zeta_min_L	0 / 0	minimum L kept per angle
preconditioner_magnetic_drifts_max_L	2	magnetic-drift truncation in the preconditioner
reusePreconditioner	.true.	reuse the factorization across right-hand sides

These map onto the tier-2 coarse preconditioner in Numerics and algorithms.

Unsupported inputs

Stated plainly, the remaining gaps against SFINCS Fortran v3 are:

• MPI multi-node execution — dkx runs single-node (multicore CPU or GPU); there is no distributed-memory mode.

• Convergence-scan ramp arrays (NthetaNumRuns, Nx_min, …) — no typed fields; retained in raw only and not acted upon (see above).

Everything else in the Fortran v3 input surface is fully supported on the canonical stack (see the README feature matrix for the parity evidence), including the &export_f group (export_full_f / export_delta_f), readExternalPhi1 (fixed external \(\Phi_1\) as a linear solve), non-stellarator-symmetric (lasym) VMEC equilibria, and magneticDriftScheme 0–9.

Geometry and equilibrium inputs

The public geometry families are documented in Geometry models and loading. The most common choices are analytic tokamak (geometryScheme = 1), VMEC (geometryScheme = 5 with equilibriumFile or wout_path), and Boozer .bc (geometryScheme = 11 or 12). The CLI and Python API share one equilibrium search order:

• absolute path from the namelist or explicit override,

• relative to the input namelist directory,

• relative to the current working directory,

• directories listed in DKX_EQUILIBRIA_DIRS,

• small bundled test/example data directories,

• then known release-hosted public fixtures by basename, fetched into the DKX_DATA_DIR cache when needed.

Prefetch the fixture cache with python -m dkx.validation.data_fetch, or set DKX_OFFLINE=1 to require a pre-populated cache.

Runtime overrides

Without editing the namelist, override the equilibrium source through:

• CLI: --equilibrium-file ... or --wout-path ...

• Python: equilibrium_file=... or wout_path=... in dkx.api.write_output()

When an override is used, the embedded input.namelist dataset written to sfincsOutput.h5 reflects the effective configuration.

Transport-matrix modes (RHSMode = 2/3)

For RHSMode = 2 and RHSMode = 3 the solver loops over whichRHS and overwrites the relevant drives internally before building each RHS. On the canonical stack this is KineticOperator._with_rhs_settings, so the transport-mode right-hand side reproduces the v3 solver RHS exactly. For RHSMode = 3 the speed grid collapses to the single node at \(x=1\) (Nx = 1), matching v3 createGrids.F90; this is handled by dkx.drift_kinetic.KineticOperator.from_namelist().

Worked example decks are in examples/ (see Examples), and the geometry input knobs are cross-referenced from Geometry models and loading.