Questions tagged [computational-physics]

Questions with this tag should be about computational physics, which is the study of physical situations with the use of software (commercial or in-house). Computational physics covers a wide range of subjects, such as fluid-dynamics, biophysics, particle-physics and solid-state-physics, among many others.
This tag should not be applied if your question is about computing a value without the use of a computer (i.e., solving a problem with pen & paper).

Types of questions we can answer here

• We can advise on numerical methods when tied to a physical problem and not a generic PDE or ODE (e.g., What methods would one use to solve diffusion problems?)
• We can discuss scheme quality/limitations (e.g. What makes the original Murman-Cole scheme not conservative in transonic potential flows?)
• We can discuss scheme design (e.g., How does one determine if a scheme is conservative?)

Types of questions we cannot answer here

• We cannot answer programming questions (e.g., How does one implement X method for Y equation?)
• We cannot debug code (e.g. I programmed Crank-Nicolson, but it's not working; what did I do wrong?)
• We cannot optimize code (My matrix inversion routine used for Crank-Nicolson is running slow; how can I speed it up?)
• We cannot advise on libraries/languages/compilers/etc. (e.g. Should I use PETSc or Trilinos for my code? or Is Fortran better for scientific programming?)
• We cannot provide help for using software (e.g., How can I modify the cross-sections in Geant4?)¹
• We cannot recommend software (e.g., What software can solve the diffusion equation?)

In general, if your question is about writing, compiling, debugging or optimizing a piece of code or is about a specific language or library, then it is off topic on Physics but may be on-topic on programming-oriented Stack Exchange sites such as Computational Science, Code Review or StackOverflow.

^{1. In many cases, software developers provide a user forum that would be appropriate for such types of questions.}