LAMMPS Molecular Dynamics Simulator

Ellipsoidal particles for diffusion and viscosity

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ellipsoidal particles for diffusion and viscosity

Ruptured CNT

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Simulation of a CNT with AIREBO being stretched until it ruptures

Using Arrows for Visualization

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Visualization of a bulk water system to demonstrate different ways to add arrows for showing different properties

Hydrogen bond analysis

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Simulation of a small peptide in water to measure and visualize the hydrogen bonds

Point dipole particles

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Point dipole particles

Rounded polyhedra visualization

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Simulation of a system of rounded polyhedra body particles consisting of cubes and pyramids

Superellipsoid particles

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Simulation of bowling pins to demonstrate granular superellipsoid particle shapes

Flow around an obstacle using trajectory lines

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Flow around an obstacle with trajectory lines

Fracturing disk modeled with BPM

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A brittle disk is hit by a particle and fractures

New LAMMPS website

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The LAMMPS website has been recreated and modernized using the Hugo tool instead of the legacy txt2html tool that gave it its trademark 1990s look.

Please let us know either at webmaster@lammps.org or post a message in the MatSci.org forum if there is anything missing or if there are broken links.

New 'LAMMPS Test Status' dashboard website

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

New feature release: 4 July 2026

Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The LAMMPS 4Jul2026 feature release version is now available for download on GitHub and and in the LAMMPS webserver download area.

New ILVES constraint solver for `connected` constrained bonds

Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Support for superellipsoid granular particles

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

LAMMPS tutorials collection paper published

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A set of eight beginner-to-advanced LAMMPS tutorials by Simon Gravelle, Cecilia M. S. Alvares, Jacob R. Gissinger, and Axel Kohlmeyer appeared in the Living Journal of Computational Molecular Science (LiveCoMS 6(1), 3037).

Topology effects on associative polymers

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Topology effects on associative polymers

Ninth LAMMPS Workshop and Symposium — Albuquerque, NM (Aug 12–14, 2025)

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Talks, tutorials, posters, and breakout sessions. Recordings and slides are available on the workshop page.

New stable release: 22 July 2025

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The 22Jul2025 stable version is available for download.

Diblock rings as interface adhesives

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Diblock rings as interface adhesives

New stable release: 29 August 2024

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Hydrodynamics with elastic objects

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Hydrodynamics with elastic objects

Phase behavior of diblock copolymers

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Phase behavior of diblock copolymers

Support for general triclinic box geometries

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

New stable release: 2 August 2023

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

New fix mdi/qm and mdi/qmmm for coupling to quantum codes

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

New distributed 3d/2d grid classes for hybrid particle/grid models

Sat, 10 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Plastic deformation of superionic water ices

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Superionic water ice

Polyethylene nano-droplets

Sat, 15 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Polyethylene nano-droplets

Exponential water uptake by ionomer membranes

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Ion-exchange membranes

New stable release: 23 June 2022

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Bonded particle models

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Bonded particle models

LAMMPS overview paper

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

LAMMPS overview paper

Hypervelocity impacts in tungsten

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Hypervelocity impacts in tungsten

New LAMMPS overview paper — please cite it in your publications

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

See the citation details and cool images from the paper.

Flow and arrest in stressed granular materials

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Flow and arrest in stressed granular materials

Controlled degradation of hydrogels

Sat, 15 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Hydrogel degradation

New stable release: 29 September 2021

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Silver nanoparticles

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Silver nanoparticles

Reactive photopolymers

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Reactive photopolymers

Hyperdynamics simulation of surface diffusion and clustering

Sat, 01 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Hyperdynamics simulation of surface diffusion and clustering

ChemSNAP potentials

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

ChemSNAP potentials

Lipids immobilizing water into droplets

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Lipids immobilizing water into droplets

PEGDA hydrogels

Sun, 01 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

PEGDA hydrogels

Thermoset reactions and characterization

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Thermoset reactions

High-rate thermal degradation of polyethylene

Sun, 01 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Thermal degradation of polyethylene

Dislocation dynamics

Sun, 01 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Dislocation dynamics

Probing eukaryotic cell mechanics via mesoscopic simulations

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Probing eukaryotic cell mechanics via mesoscopic simulations

Colloidal spherocylinder films

Sat, 01 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Colloidal spherocylinder films

Nanowire surface dislocation reflection

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Nanowire surface dislocation reflection

Acid-containing polymer chain dynamics

Tue, 01 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Acid-containing polymer chain dynamics

Motion on manifold (2d) surface

Tue, 01 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Motion on manifold (2d) surface

Rigid polymer nanoparticle coatings

Tue, 01 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Rigid polymer nanoparticle coatings

Density-functional tight-binding models

Tue, 01 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Density-functional tight-binding models

Blood flow in capillaries

Sat, 01 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Blood flow in capillaries

BOP potential for carbon

Mon, 01 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Bond-order potential (BOP) for carbon

Fix wall/gran/region for granular models

Mon, 12 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Fix wall/gran/region for granular models

Dynamic load balancing

Sun, 11 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Dynamic load balancing

Colloids in solvent

Sat, 10 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Colloids in solvent

Crack propagation

Fri, 09 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Crack propagation

Deposition of atoms and molecules

Thu, 08 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Deposition of atoms and molecules

Ellipsoids in LJ background

Tue, 06 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Ellipsoids in LJ background

Couette and Poiseuille flow

Mon, 05 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Couette and Poiseuille flow

Friction between 2 surfaces

Sun, 04 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Friction between 2 surfaces

Indentation

Sat, 03 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Indentation

Micelle self-assembly

Fri, 02 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Micelle self-assembly

Non-equilibrium MD (NEMD) shear of a LJ fluid

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Non-equilibrium MD (NEMD) shear of a LJ fluid

Flow around an obstacle

Wed, 31 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Flow around an obstacle

Granular pouring and chute flow

Tue, 30 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Granular pouring and chute flow

Shear of a solid

Mon, 29 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Shear of a solid

Rigid box particles for diffusion and viscosity

Sat, 20 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Rigid box particles for diffusion and viscosity

Rigid dimer particles for diffusion and viscosity

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Rigid dimer particles for diffusion and viscosity

Line-faceted rigid 2d particles

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Line-faceted rigid 2d particles

Poly-disperse spheroids for diffusion and viscosity

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Poly-disperse spheroids for diffusion and viscosity

Rigid star particles for diffusion and viscosity

Mon, 15 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Rigid star particles for diffusion and viscosity

Triangle-faceted rigid 3d particles

Sun, 14 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Triangle-faceted rigid 3d particles

Viscosity of 2d LJ fluid via different methods

Wed, 10 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Viscosity of 2d LJ fluid via different methods

Polymeric fullerene film coated on Si

Wed, 01 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Polymeric fullerene film coating

Mixing of atomistic solutes and coarse-grained water

Mon, 01 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

ELBA coarse-grained water

Electrochemical adsorption of OH

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Electrochemical adsorption of OH on Pt(111)

Nanoparticle assembly and aggregation

Thu, 01 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Nanoparticle assembly and aggregation

Liquid crystal film rupture

Sat, 01 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Liquid crystal film rupture

Jamming of extremely polydisperse granular materials

Fri, 01 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Jamming of extremely polydisperse granular materials

Polymer shear thinning

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Polymer shear thinning

Evaporation self-assembly

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Evaporation self-assembly

Ionomer morphologies

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Ionomer morphologies

Bilayer phases

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Bilayer phases

Thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes

Shock loading of polymer foam

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Shock loading of polymer foam

Amorphous carbon film growth

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Amorphous carbon film growth

Free energies via LAMMPS and PLUMED

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Free energies via LAMMPS and PLUMED

Nanoprojectile impacts

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Nanoprojectile impacts

Single-point diamond turning

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Single-point diamond turning

Fiber dynamics

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Fiber dynamics

Shock loading of inhomogeneous PBX

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Shock loading of inhomogeneous PBX

Capillary filling in carbon nanotubes

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Capillary filling in carbon nanotubes

Self-assembling nanofibers from Thiophene-peptide oligomers

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Self-assembling nanofibers from Thiophene-peptide oligomers

GCMC model of zeolite occupancy

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

GCMC model of zeolite occupancy

Compression of nanoparticles

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Compression of nanoparticles

Carbon nanotube fiber design

Sun, 01 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Carbon nanotube fiber design

Layer-by-layer self assembly

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Layer-by-layer self assembly

Electron force field for non-adiabatic dynamics

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Electron force field for non-adiabatic dynamics

Dislocations moving thru grain boundaries

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Dislocations moving thru grain boundaries

Granular DEM

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Granular DEM

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) models

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) models

Electro-catalytically active gold nanoparticles

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Electro-catalytically active gold nanoparticles

Nanoparticle coating structure in the presence of solvent

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Nanoparticle coating structure in the presence of solvent

Two-temperature model for electronic heat conduction

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Two-temperature model for electronic heat conduction

Metal response to helium bubble formation

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Metal response to helium bubble formation

Flow of water and ions thru a silica pore

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Flow of water and ions thru a silica pore

Stick/slip and polymer flow on rough surfaces

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Stick/slip and polymer flow on rough surfaces

Coarse-grained self-assembly of lipids and PEG surfactants

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Coarse-grained self-assembly of lipids and PEG surfactants

Ultra-thin Cu nanowire formation

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Ultra-thin Cu nanowire formation

Spherical polyelectrolyte brushes

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Spherical polyelectrolyte brushes

Coarse-grained block copolymer generation

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Coarse-grained block copolymer generation

Peridynamics mesoscale modeling of impact fracture

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Peridynamics mesoscale modeling of impact fracture

Atom-to-continuum coupling with the ATC package

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Atom-to-continuum coupling with the ATC package

Dynamics of an isolated edge dislocation

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Dynamics of an isolated edge dislocation

Water interacting with self-assembled monolayers

Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Water interacting with self-assembled monolayers

Brazing of two-metal system

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Brazing of two-metal system

Stress field around dislocations

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Stress field around dislocations

Cavitation in liquid metal

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Cavitation in liquid metal

RuBisCO protein simulations

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

RuBisCO protein simulations

Shear faults in a model brittle solid

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Shear faults in a model brittle solid

Nanoprecipitates and shock induced plasticity

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Nanoprecipitates and shock induced plasticity

Deformation and void nucleation under shock loading

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Deformation and void nucleation under shock loading

Polyelectrolyte adsorption and brushes

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Polyelectrolyte adsorption and brushes

Melting of polycrystalline metal

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Melting of polycrystalline metal

Brazil nut effect

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Brazil nut effect

Stress in metal nanowires with twin boundaries

Sat, 01 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Stress in metal nanowires with twin boundaries

Crystallization of polyethylene melt

Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Crystallization of polyethylene melt

Cu nanowire loading and unloading

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Cu nanowire loading and unloading

Nanotip indentation of a coated surface

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Nanotip indentation of a coated surface

Au nanowire formation and extension

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Au nanowire formation and extension

Surface wetting by polymer nanodroplets

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Surface wetting by polymer nanodroplets

Shear of a Cu bicrystal

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Shear of a Cu bicrystal

Solvated dendritic polymer structure

Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Solvated dendritic polymer phase behavior

Stress in metal nanowires

Tue, 01 Jun 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Stress in metal nanowires

Rhodopsin in solvated lipid bilayer

Sat, 01 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Rhodopsin in solvated lipid bilayer

Lipid membrane self-assembly and fusion

Wed, 01 Oct 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Lipid membrane self-assembly and fusion

Crazing of entangled polymer chains

Tue, 01 Jul 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Crazing of entangled polymer chains

Granular hopper

Tue, 01 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Granular hopper

Metal solidification

Sun, 01 Sep 2002 00:00:00 +0000

Metal solidification

Tensile pull on adhesive polymer chains

Tue, 01 Jan 2002 00:00:00 +0000

Tensile pull on adhesive polymer chains

Entropy-driven nano-motor

Mon, 01 Oct 2001 00:00:00 +0000

Entropy-driven nano-motor

Shear of large single-crystal metals

Sat, 01 Sep 2001 00:00:00 +0000

Shear of large single-crystal metals

Liquid-crystal conformations

Thu, 01 Jun 1995 00:00:00 +0000

Liquid-crystal conformations

Books

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

These are not endorsements — we simply want to make the LAMMPS community aware of potentially useful resources.

General molecular dynamics

Computer Simulation of Liquids, M. P. Allen & D. J. Tildesley — book
Understanding Molecular Simulation: From Algorithms to Applications, D. Frenkel & B. Smit — book
Numerical Simulation in Molecular Dynamics: Numerics, Algorithms, Parallelization, Applications, M. Griebel, S. Knapek & G. Zumbusch — book
Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Molecular Simulation, M. Tuckerman — book

About LAMMPS specifically

Extending and Modifying LAMMPS — Writing Your Own Source Code, Shafat Mubin & Jichin Li, Packt Publishing, 2021 — book.

Build status

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Live status of the post-merge GitHub Actions workflows on the develop branch — compilation, unit tests, and code-analysis checks. These reflect the status after the latest pull request merge. Click a badge to open that workflow’s run history.

The badges are served live by GitHub and reflect the latest run on develop. Edit the list in data/ci.yaml to add or remove workflows. If a badge ever shows “no status”, the workflow file was likely renamed or removed; update its file: entry to match.

Citing LAMMPS

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The following CPC paper is the canonical reference to use for citing LAMMPS. It gives an overview of the code including its parallel algorithms, design features, performance, and brief highlights of many of its materials modeling capabilities. If you wish, you can also mention the URL of the LAMMPS website in your paper.

LAMMPS - a flexible simulation tool for particle-based materials modeling at the atomic, meso, and continuum scales, A. P. Thompson, H. M. Aktulga, R. Berger, D. S. Bolintineanu, W. M. Brown, P. S. Crozier, P. J. in ’t Veld, A. Kohlmeyer, S. G. Moore, T. D. Nguyen, R. Shan, M. J. Stevens, J. Tranchida, C. Trott, S. J. Plimpton, Comp. Phys. Comm. 271 (2022) 108171, doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2021.108171.

Contribute

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

In the spirit of an open-source code, here are various ways you can contribute to making LAMMPS better. You can send email on any of these items to the developers.

LAMMPS is designed to be easy to extend with new code for features like potentials, boundary conditions, diagnostic computations, etc. The Modify doc pages give details. If you add a feature of general interest, it can be added to the main LAMMPS distribution. See the Modify contribute doc page for how to submit your new file(s) to the LAMMPS developers. The preferred way is via GitHub; see this tutorial for instructions.
If you find a bug, the Errors bugs doc page explains how to report it.
If you find an error or omission in the LAMMPS documentation or on the LAMMPS website, or have a suggestion or content to clarify or include, send an email to the developers.
If you publish a paper using LAMMPS results with cool pictures or movies, you can send them to add to the gallery, with links and attributions back to you.
The tools sub-directory of the LAMMPS distribution has various stand-alone codes for pre- and post-processing of LAMMPS data. More details are on the Tools doc page. If you write a new tool that users will find useful, it can be added to the LAMMPS distribution.
Cash. Small denominations, unmarked bills preferred. Leave in a paper sack on the developers’ desks. VISA also accepted. Chocolate chip cookies encouraged.

Contributors

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

LAMMPS includes contributions from hundreds of people: this page recognizes package authors whose work deserves special mention, the team that designed and tested the original version of LAMMPS, and — in a chronological timeline — everybody who contributed a feature, command, or tool.

Special recognition

The following folks deserve special recognition. Many of the packages they have written are unique for an MD code and LAMMPS would not be as general-purpose as it is without their expertise and efforts.

Developers

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The current LAMMPS developers are listed below. You can email an individual developer with a question, or reach all of them at developers@lammps.org.

Axel

Steve

Aidan

Richard

Germain

Joel

Jake

James

Meg

Stan

Trung

Current developers

Name	Affiliation	Email	Areas of expertise
Axel Kohlmeyer	Temple University	akohlmey at gmail.com	OpenMP, library interface, LAMMPS-GUI, GitHub, MatSci forum, code maintenance, testing, releases
Steve Plimpton	Sandia National Labs (retired)	sjplimp at gmail.com	original author, MD kernels, parallel algorithms & scalability, code structure and design
Aidan Thompson	Sandia National Labs	athomps at sandia.gov	manybody potentials, machine-learned potentials, materials science, statistical mechanics
-	-	-	-
Richard Berger	Los Alamos National Lab	richard.berger at outlook.com	Python, HPC, DevOps
Germain Clavier	Laboratoire CIMAP	germain.clavier at unicaen.fr	organic molecules and polymers, mechanical properties, surfaces, integrators, coarse-graining
Joel Clemmer	Sandia National Labs	jtclemm at sandia.gov	granular systems, fluid/solid mechanics
Jacob R. Gissinger	Stevens Institute of Technology	jgissing at stevens.edu	reactive molecular dynamics, macromolecular systems, type labels
James Goff	Sandia National Labs	jmgoff at sandia.gov	machine-learned potentials, QEq solvers, Python
Meg McCarthy	Sandia National Labs	megmcca at sandia.gov	metal alloys, microstructure, machine-learned potentials
Stan Moore	Sandia National Labs	stamoor at sandia.gov	Kokkos, KSpace solvers, ReaxFF
Trung Nguyen	University of Chicago	ndactrung at gmail.com	soft matter, GPU package, DIELECTRIC package, regression testing

Past developers

Paul Crozier (Sandia National Labs)
Mark Stevens (Sandia National Labs)
Ray Shan (while at Sandia National Labs and Materials Design)

Contributors

LAMMPS includes contributions from hundreds of people. The Contributors page lists package authors who deserve special recognition, the team that designed and tested the original version, and a chronological timeline of who contributed each feature, command, or tool.

Funding

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

LAMMPS development has been primarily funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), through its CRADA, LDRD, ASC, ECP, and other programs. This funding has come from DOE’s Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) and Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER).

Some funding has come from DOE’s Genomics:GTL program under the project “Carbon Sequestration in Synechococcus Sp.: From Molecular Machines to Hierarchical Modeling”.

Some funding has come from DOE’s National Institute for NanoEngineering (NINE) program under the project “Nanocomposite Materials Design: Scientific Understanding and Control of Rheology, Assembly and Functionality”.

Governing Body

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

(coming soon)

History

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins

LAMMPS began in the mid-1990s under a cooperative research & development agreement (CRADA) between two US Department of Energy labs (Sandia and LLNL) and three companies (Cray, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and DuPont). The goal was a large-scale parallel classical molecular-dynamics code; the effort was led by Steve Plimpton at Sandia.

After the CRADA ended, a final Fortran 77 version, LAMMPS 99, was released, followed by a Fortran 90 rewrite, LAMMPS 2001. The current LAMMPS is a C++ rewrite, first released as open source in September 2004. It absorbed features from older Sandia parallel MD codes — ParaDyn, Warp, and GranFlow — and, from late 2006, many-body potentials (Stillinger-Weber, Tersoff, ReaxFF) and charge equilibration from Aidan Thompson’s GRASP code.

How to edit the website

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This page explains the process of adding or modifying content for the LAMMPS website and specifically explains what has changed from the old LAMMPS website. You do not need to learn a new programming language or a template system. You still edit plain text files, commit them, and push them to the git repository to update the site. The rest is a handful of conventions explained below. The canonical detailed description lives in the repository as src/CONTENT_GUIDE.md.

Papers citing LAMMPS

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A good way to learn more about what can be done with LAMMPS — beyond studying the manual and learning from tutorials — is to read papers about studies that used LAMMPS.

Here are Google Scholar links to lists of papers which cite LAMMPS, via either our recent 2022 Comp. Phys. Comm. paper, or the original 1995 J. Comp. Phys. paper. Both papers are briefly discussed on the citing LAMMPS page. Note that Google Scholar is rather inclusive and also includes pre-prints, reports, posted thesis documents, and more.

R&D 100 Award for LAMMPS

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

LAMMPS received an R&D 100 award in 2018. These awards are given annually — see the R&D World website — and are an industry-wide competition rewarding the practical applications of science.

Award summary

LAMMPS: Atomistic Simulation of Materials — LAMMPS is a widely-used molecular dynamics simulation package that models materials from the atomistic to mesoscale to continuum scales. It can be run on machines from desktop computers to the largest supercomputers, to explore the structural and dynamic properties of materials and provide insights not easily accessible to experimental observation.

Report bugs & request features

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

You can do both of these on the LAMMPS GitHub page; see details below.

You can also do this via the LAMMPS forum by posting a message in the “LAMMPS Development” sub-category. This is more appropriate if you are not sure something is a bug, or you just want to know whether a feature is already available in LAMMPS or possible to implement. If it indeed seems to be a bug, you may get asked to submit the full info through GitHub.

Tutorials

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This page has links to LAMMPS-related tutorial materials — either materials the LAMMPS developers have used or that were created by others. We’re also happy to list resources created and hosted by other groups that are of interest to people learning LAMMPS. Please contact the LAMMPS development team if you have links or documents you wish to contribute and post here.

We also hold LAMMPS workshops every two years in Albuquerque, NM, which include a beginners session where tutorial-style information is presented. See the Workshops page for details and PDFs of slides or video recordings.

User Support

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The best place to get help with using LAMMPS is the LAMMPS user forum on MatSci.org. Also general questions about development should be asked there. Only specific bugs or feature requests should be posted to the GitHub issues page directly. Otherwise, one of the forum members will advise when it is best to move your inquiry elsewhere. Please review the posting guidelines first, and take note what you should not to ask in the forum.

Visualization

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

LAMMPS can produce on-the-fly NetPBM, JPG, PNG, or TGA snapshot images via its dump image command. See the LAMMPS Visualization Howto for some examples and suggestions for using it most effectively. LAMMPS-GUI has an image viewer dialog that allows to configure many of the dump image features from a GUI. However, for high-quality, interactive visualization, you need tools like those discussed on this page.

Packages we have used

LAMMPS can either write output files directly in an input format recognized by these programs (see the dump command), or auxiliary tools may be included in the distribution to convert to the needed format:

YouTube Videos

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The LAMMPS project maintains a YouTube channel, @templelammps, with videos that highlight features of LAMMPS and recordings of recent LAMMPS workshops.

Videos — clips highlighting features and capabilities of LAMMPS.
Shorts — short-form clips highlighting individual LAMMPS features.
Streams — archived live streams from recent LAMMPS workshops.