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mkspiral - uniform-density test disk plus spiral in spherical potential
mkspiral out=snapshot [parameters=values ...] 
mkspiral
sets up a cold disk of test particles orbiting clockwise in the gravitational
potential of a user-supplied potential (in potential(5NEMO)
 format). In addition
a spiral is added with constant width in degrees along a galactic circle.
For given ratio of spiral/disk perturbation a and width w (now measured
in radians) the fraction of particles in the disk will be about  pi / (pi
+ a.w.sqrt(2.pi)) for not too large w. The inverse wavelenght of the spiral
(related to the pitch angle) will be positive for a trailing spiral pattern.
snapmass(1NEMO)
 and snapcenter(1NEMO)
 have to be used if for some reason
the user want finite mass particles and a perfectly centered set of particles.
Note this particle distribution is only useful for display, e.g. spiral structure
in a Longitude-Velocity diagram, and should not be integrated with programs
like hackcode3(1NEMO)
. 
mkspiral is also used in the standard benchmark as
to measure disk I/O speed on a file just over 2GB. 
The following
parameters are recognized in any order if the keyword is also given: 
- out=out_file
- The data are written to this file in SnapShot(5NEMO)
  format [no default].
- nbody=num_bodies 
- Number of disk particles [default: 2048] 
- potname=potential_name
- name of the potential, see $NEMO/obj/potential for the current repository.
The user can supply his own, see potential(5NEMO)
. [default: plummer]. 
- potpars=pot_pars
- Paramaters to the user supplied potential. The number of parameters depends
on the potential supplied, the first parameter is reserved for a pattern
speed in future implementation. [default: not supplied, parameters as defined
by potential(5)
]. 
- potfile=pot_file 
- Data_file(s) to the user supplied potential.
The number of files depends on the potential supplied. [default: not supplied,
datafile(s) defined by potential(5)
]. 
- rmin=min_disk_radius 
- Inner cutoff
radius of test-particle disk. [Default: 0.0]. 
- rmax=max_disk_radius 
- Outer cutoff
radius of test-particle disk. [Default: 1.0]. 
- mass= 
- Total mass of the disk.
[Default: 0] 
- a=ratio 
- Ratio of maximum spiral perturbation w.r.t. base disk.
[default: 1]. 
- k=inv_rad 
- Wavenumber of the spiral pattern, such that 2.pi.k.r
is the phase of the spiral density maximum.  Positive  means trailing spiral
pattern. (note that this is defined in term of sign=, see below) [default:
1].  
- w=width 
- Width of the spiral arm along a galactic circle. Depending on
the next keyword this width is either is degrees along a galactic circle
if that is to be  constant, or in length units if the width of the spiral
is to be constant. [default: 15]. 
- angular=t|f 
- Is the width of the spiral defined
in angular terms, in which case the physical real width linearly increases
with distance from the galactic center, or is is constant as a function
of radius. [default: t, i.e. defined in angular terms]. 
- seed=random_seed 
- Use
random number seed. A zero seed will generate a system-time dependant seed.
[default: 0]. 
- sign=-1|+1 
- Sign of the angular moment vector. Positive means
counter-clock wise  rotation. Not 
- sigma=s1,s2,s3 
- Velocity dispersion (isotropic)
in the X-Y plane, plus optionally an offset and exponential dropoff: s =
s1 + s2 * exp(-r/s3). Default: 0 
- sigmator= 
- The ratio of the tangential to
radial velocity dispersion. By default 1, but if you need realistic values,
our local solar neighbor measures about 0.5 but the best self-consistent
(despite these models are NOT) estimate can be set by using the value -1,
in which case 0.5*kappa/omega is used. Default: 1 
- nmodel=n_models 
- Number
of output models. [Default: 1]. 
- headline=message 
- Text headline for output
file [default: not used]. 
- linear=t|f 
- Should the spiral be linear or logarithmic.
Although spiral galaxies are mostly logarithmic, for historic reasons the
default here is linear. [Default: t] 
- test=test-mode 
- The mode for testing.
  test=0 gives the normal test disk;  test=1 the 2D coordinates are uniform
random (-1,1); test=2 the 2D coordinates are all set to 1.0; test=3 no initialization
(everything 0) [0] 
This program has been used as benchmark to
test writing >2GB files (40 models of 1,000,000 particles creates a file
just over this magic limit):
    % time mkspiral s000 1000000 nmodel=40
Here is a sample on some 2002-class machines: 
  U-sparc IIi/440 MHz:  161.30u 42.59s 5:04.85 66.8%  
  PentiumIV 2.2 GHz:    29.54u 10.68s 2:40.14 25.1% 
  PentiumIV 2.4 GHz:    26.46u 10.14s 1:37.71 37.4%  
  G5 2.0GHz:            28.400u 24.660s 1:05.41 81.1% (at no load of 0.0)
                        33.460u 44.950s 13:01.31 10.0%  (at full load of 2.0)
  P4/1.6 GHz:           69.940u 18.470s 4:50.64 30.4% (laptop)
  P4/2.6 GHz + SATA     27.400u 16.320s 0:52.13 83.8%   0+0k 0+0io 300pf+0w
(at no load of 0.0)
                        27.790u 20.020s 1:52.22 42.6%   0+0k 0+0io 300pf+0w
sum: 79.35u  3.72s 2:17.64 60.3%   P2400
tsf:  0.00u  7.59s 1:59.46  6.3%   P2400
sum: 13.610u 4.130s 1:10.12 25.2%  P2600/SATA
tsf:  0.010u 7.800s 1:09.74 11.1%  P2600/SATA
sum: 13.334u 2.915s 0:57.67 28.1%  P2800/SATA (Peter’s asus )
tsf:  0.003u 4.696s 0:44.36 10.5%  P2800/SATA
sum: 68.63u 22.34s 2:31.54 60.0%  U440
tsf: 21.85u 30.73s 2:32.06 34.5%  U440
And here a more modern benchmark on a i7-8550U CPU processor with different
modes: 
   % time mkspiral $out 1000000 nmodel=40 seed=123 test=$test
   $test  $out  cpu:
   0      .     3.05u 1.09           i5-1135G7
   0      .     4.15u 1.56           i5-10xxx
   0      s0    6.21u 2.16s 0:08.38  full computation on a  i7-8550U CPU
   0      .     6.40u 0.69s 0:07.10   
   1      .     3.49u 0.68s 0:04.17  only using 4 xrandom’s calls
   2      .     2.32u 0.71s 0:03.03  constant initialization
   2      .     1.43u 0.68s 0:02.12  - same , but with better caching barebody.h
   3      .     0.65u 0.56s 0:01.22  no initialization (using calloc)
 
mkdisk(1NEMO)
, snapmass(1NEMO)
, snapcenter(1NEMO)
, hackcode3(1NEM0)
13-mar-89    V1.0  created                       PJT
6-apr-89    V1.1 seed=0 implemented              PJT
7-apr-89    V1.2 angular keyword introduced      PJT
26-feb-93    V1.4 new potential keywrds    PJT
16-sep-95    V1.5 added nmodel=, sign= ; radii now random    PJT
26-may-02    added benchmark data for >2GB files    PJT
3-aug-09    V1.8 and documented forgotten stuff        PJT
11-aug-09    V1.9 added sigmator=    PJT
24-oct-2020    V1.10 added test=    PJT
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