Introduction: Over the past years the General Particle Tracer (GPT) package has become a well established simulation tool for the design of accelerators and beam lines. GPT is based on full 3D particle tracking techniques, providing a solid basis for the study of 3D and non-linear effects of charged particles dynamics in electromagnetic fields. All built-in beam line components and external 2D/3D field-maps can be arbitrarily positioned and oriented to simulate a complicated setup-up and study the effects of misalignments. An embedded fifth order Runge-Kutta driver with adaptive stepsize control ensures accuracy while computation time is kept to a minimum. GPT provides various 2D and 3D space-charge models, including a sophisticated 3D particle-mesh method that scales O(N) in terms of CPU time. Because of its modern implementation, GPT can be easily extended by the user to perform highly specialized calculations for specific applications. Hierarchical data analysis, automatic parameter scans, built-in optimization and graphical output allow for fast and detailed interpretation of the simulation results.

Run buttonNew features of GPT version 3.2 include:
Multi-objective genetic optimizer
MPI cluster version for fast parameter scanning and optimization

New features of GPT version 3.1 include:
Perfect screens without interpolation error
Fast snapshots that produce time-domain output without slowing down the ODE solver
Multi-core support for the 'Barnes&Hut' molecular dynamics model for Coulomb interactions

Publications about GPT and GPT related projects can be found on our Publications page. Newly developed beamline components, updates of the User Interface and an up-to-date bug list can be found on our News page. A description of our own research is listed on our Projects page. Our Versions page can be used to obtain pricing and additional technical information. A detailed list of all GPT features of the latest release can be found here.

Is GPT an appropriate tool for you? Although the capabilities and graphical user-interface of GPT dramatically simplify the task of accelerator and beamline design, the package is not for the novice. The learning curve is fairly steep, simply because using a particle tracking code requires professional skills regardless of the tools.

 GPT plotting Field import Collector design Root-finding and solving GPTwin User Interface On-line Help

Documentation and development: GPT is not a black-box simulation package: All internal calculations and all 3D electromagnetic field configurations are fully documented. Furthermore, the source code of all built-in elements is available, allowing users to easily develop models for custom beam line components. GPT has been under constant development since its first release in 1996 as a result of the joined effort of Pulsar Physics and all GPT users. We feel very privileged to be able to continue this path.

Dr. S.B. van der Geer, Dr. M.J. de Loos
The authors of the GPT code.