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PlasmaPy Plasma

.. module:: plasmapy.plasma

.. currentmodule:: plasmapy.plasma

Overview

One of the core classes in PlasmaPy is ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_factory.Plasma. In order to make it easy to work with different plasma data in PlasmaPy, the ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_factory.Plasma object provides a number of methods for commonly existing plasmas in nature.

All Plasma objects are created using the Plasma factory ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_factory.Plasma.

A number of plasma data structures are supported by subclassing this base object. See :ref:`plasma-sources` to see a list of all of them.

Creating Plasma Objects

Plasma objects are constructed using the special factory class ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_factory.Plasma:

>>> x = plasmapy.plasma.Plasma(T_e=T_e,
...                            n_e=n_e,
...                            Z=Z,
...                            particle=particle)  # doctest: +SKIP

The result of a call to ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_factory.Plasma will be either a ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_base.GenericPlasma object, or a subclass of ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_base.GenericPlasma which deals with a specific type of data, e.g. ~plasmapy.plasma.sources.plasmablob.PlasmaBlob or ~plasmapy.plasma.sources.plasma3d.Plasma3D (see :ref:`plasma-sources` to see a list of all of them).

.. autoclass:: plasmapy.plasma.plasma_factory.PlasmaFactory
   :noindex:

Using Plasma Objects

Once a Plasma object has been created using ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_factory.Plasma it will be a instance or a subclass of the ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_base.GenericPlasma class. The documentation of ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_base.GenericPlasma lists the attributes and methods that are available on all Plasma objects.

Plasma Classes

Defined in plasmapy.plasma.sources are a set of ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_base.GenericPlasma subclasses which convert the keyword arguments data to the standard ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_base.GenericPlasma interface. These subclasses also provide a method, which describes to the Plasma <plasmapy.plasma.plasma_factory.PlasmaFactory> factory which the data match its plasma data structure.

.. automodapi:: plasmapy.plasma
   :noindex:
   :no-main-docstring:
   :exclude-groups: modules, variables

Plasma Subclasses

The :class:`~plasmapy.plasma.sources.plasma3d.Plasma3D` class is a basic structure to contain spatial information about a plasma. To initialize a Plasma3D system, first create an instance of the :class:`~plasmapy.plasma.sources.plasma3d.Plasma3D` class and then set the :attr:`~plasmapy.plasma.sources.plasma3d.Plasma3D.density`, :attr:`~plasmapy.plasma.sources.plasma3d.Plasma3D.momentum`, :attr:`~plasmapy.plasma.sources.plasma3d.Plasma3D.pressure` and :attr:`~plasmapy.plasma.sources.plasma3d.Plasma3D.magnetic_field`.

Note

This feature is currently under development.

The :class:`~plasmapy.plasma.sources.plasmablob.PlasmaBlob` class is a basic structure to contain just plasma parameter information about a plasma with no associated spatial or temporal scales. To initialize a :class:`~plasmapy.plasma.sources.plasmablob.PlasmaBlob` system, call it with arguments: electron temperature (T_e) and electron density (n_e). You may also optionally define the ionization (Z), and relevant plasma particle (particle).

Note

This feature is currently under development.

.. automodapi:: plasmapy.plasma.sources
   :noindex:
   :exclude-groups: modules
   :skip: HDF5Reader

Writing a new Plasma subclass

Any subclass of ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_base.GenericPlasma which defines a method named is_datasource_for will automatically be registered with the Plasma <plasmapy.plasma.plasma_factory.PlasmaFactory> factory. The is_datasource_for method describes the form of the data for which the ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_base.GenericPlasma subclass is valid. For example, it might check the number and types of keyword arguments. This makes it straightforward to define your own ~plasmapy.plasma.plasma_base.GenericPlasma subclass for a new data structure or a custom data source like simulated data. These classes only have to be imported for this to work, as demonstrated by the following example.

import astropy.units as u
import plasmapy.plasma


class FuturePlasma(plasmapy.plasma.GenericPlasma):
    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(**kwargs)

    # Specify a classmethod that determines if the input data matches
    # this new subclass
    @classmethod
    def is_datasource_for(cls, **kwargs):
        """
        Determines if any of keyword arguments have a dimensionless value.
        """
        for _, value in kwargs.items():
            try:
                if value.unit == u.dimensionless_unscaled:
                    return True
            except AttributeError:
                pass

        return False

This class will now be available through the Plasma <plasmapy.plasma.plasma_factory.PlasmaFactory> factory as long as this class has been defined, i.e. imported into the current session.

If you do not want to create a method named is_datasource_for you can manually register your class and matching method using the following method.

import plasmapy.plasma

plasmapy.plasma.Plasma.register(FuturePlasma, FuturePlasma.some_matching_method)

API

.. automodapi:: plasmapy.plasma
   :noindex:
   :no-main-docstring:
   :heading-chars: "^~"