py-pde

Spec sheet

Purpose

py-pde provides methods and classes for simulating partial differential equations and stochastic differential equations.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Intended users

The project says it is aimed at researchers and students exploring PDE behavior and boundary conditions.Read 4 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Audience

The package is aimed at researchers and students investigating PDE behavior and boundary conditions.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Platforms

The package is developed for Python 3.12, tested through Python 3.14, and documented for Linux, Windows, and macOS.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Integrations

Documented optional packages include JAX, PyTorch, MPI, napari, pandas, h5py, ipywidgets, and py-modelrunner.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Security

The documentation warns that interpreting arbitrary expressions uses exec() and should not be used where malicious input may occur.Read 4 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Support

The repository points users to GitHub Discussions for more information.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

License

The repository identifies the project as MIT licensed.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Backends

Core computations can use numba, jax, or torch backends, with compiled backends potentially requiring startup compilation.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Boundary conditions

Differential operators support flexible boundary conditions, including Dirichlet, Neumann, Robin, periodic, and anti-periodic conditions.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Features

It supports nonlinear PDEs, complex boundary conditions, and collections of scalar, vector, or tensor fields.Read 4 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Fields and equations

It supports scalar, vector, and rank-2 tensor fields, and PDEs can be expressed with the PDE class or implemented by subclassing PDEBase.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Geometries

Supported grids include Cartesian, polar symmetric, spherical symmetric, and cylindrical symmetric grids.Read 4 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Installation

The package can be installed with pip or conda-forge, and the project also lists an Arch Linux package.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Limitations

The package is intended for simple geometries with fixed discretization, and time-independent and integro-differential systems are not fully supported.Read 4 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Limits

The package is suited to simple geometries with fixed discretization and does not fully support time-independent systems or integro-differential equations.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Numerical method

It uses the method of lines with finite-difference approximations on fixed grids.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Parallel processing

The package supports MPI-based parallel simulations using its ExplicitMPISolver and an installed MPI implementation.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Platform support

The documentation says py-pde has been tested on Linux, Windows, and macOS with Python versions up to 3.14.Read 4 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Publication

The documentation asks users to cite David Zwicker’s 2020 Journal of Open Source Software paper about py-pde.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Results and visualization

Trackers can report progress, plot simulation states, detect steady states, and store intermediate states in memory or files.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Security note

The documentation warns that arbitrary expressions are interpreted using exec() and advises against using them where malicious input could occur.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Solvers

Available solver approaches include Euler, Runge-Kutta, backward Euler, and wrappers for scipy.integrate.solve_ivp().Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Stochastic equations

The framework also supports stochastic differential equations in the Itô representation.Read 4 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Supported grids

Supported geometries include Cartesian, polar symmetric, spherical symmetric, and cylindrical symmetric grids.Read 12 Oct 2026 · py-pde.readthedocs.io

Plans and prices

Every py-pde plan and price →

Where Specifiction places it

• Physics Simulation Software#29 of 898.1