Planetary Simulations
SWIFT is also designed for running planetary simulations such as of giant impacts, as introduced in Kegerreis et al. (2019), and of any non-planetary simulations with more complicated equations of state and/or multiple materials, etc.
Active development is ongoing of more features, supporting tools, and examples, so please let us know if you are interested in using SWIFT or have any implementation requests.
You can find an example of creating initial conditions and running an impact
simulation in swiftsim/examples/Planetary/ under DemoImpactInitCond/
and DemoImpact/. Check out their README.md files for more info.
The tabulated equation of state files can be downloaded there using
EoSTables/get_eos_tables.sh.
To run planetary or similar simulations with a traditional SPH formulation,
SWIFT should be configured to use the planetary hydrodynamics scheme and
equations of state: --with-hydro=planetary and
--with-equation-of-state=planetary. These allow for multiple materials to be
used, chosen from the several available equations of state.
Planetary simulations can also be carried out using the advanced
REMIX SPH scheme, which improves the treatment of mixing and material
interfaces (Sandnes et al. 2025).
To configure within REMIX, use --with-hydro=remix and
--with-equation-of-state=planetary. Note that REMIX simulations require
initial particle densities in the initial conditions. We also recommend
configuring with --with-kernel=wendland-C2 and with resolution_eta: 1.487
in the parameter file for improved hydrodynamic behaviour and since this is the
configuration used for the validation simulations of Sandnes et al. (2025).
More information: