Test suite

MESA includes a comprehensive test suite.

Building upon test suite cases

Your first stop when setting up a new problem with MESA should be the MESA test suite. You will find a wide range of sample cases there. Looking at the test_suite inlists is a quick way to familiarize yourself with the set of options relevant to your problem. You may want to copy an inlist from the test suite to one of your working directories to use as a starting point for a project of your own.

Each test suite problem lives in a subdirectory of

$MESA_DIR/star/test_suite

and you can find (slightly out-of-date, but still useful) descriptions of some of the test problems in the docs/ sub-directory of each test_suite case.

For example, take a look at the “high mass” test case. It starts by creating a pre-main-sequence model of 100 Msun with Z=0.02, and then it “relaxes” Z down to 1e-5 and the mass up to 110 Msun before starting the evolution. It will take under 200 steps (and a few minutes) to reach a central X of 0.5. To try it yourself,

cd star/test_suite/high_mass
./mk
./rn

You can do the same with any of the test_suite cases.

If you want to base your work off of a test_suite case, you should make a copy the directory and then edit this copy.

cp -r $MESA_DIR/star/test_suite/high_mass my_high_mass

The test_suite examples require a few tweaks in order to be used “outside” the of the test_suite directory. First, you need to edit make/makefile and delete the line

MESA_DIR = ../../../..

Then, edit the inlist files and delete the line

mesa_dir = '../../..'

Then edit the rn script and delete the line

MESA_DIR=../../..

These changes ensure that you are using the copy of MESA specified by the $MESA_DIR environment variable.

You might also need to adjust filenames of any initial models or other inlists, if they are specified by a relative path. (You can simply change these to be an absolute path.)

The test_suite inlists specify rather strict limits on the number of steps (by setting max_model_number) and/or retries (by setting max_number_retries). You likely want to delete these limits.

The MESA test_suite problems also have non-standard run_star_extras, including routines that check the runtime of the example. If these annoy you, they can be pruned by hand.

Tools such as Bill Wolf’s mesa-cli can automate some of these steps.

Star tests

c13_pocket

This test evolves a 2.0 \({\rm M}_\odot\) star through one thermal pulse on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and illustrates third dredge up and the formation of a \(^{13}{\rm C}\) pocket.

conductive_flame

This test case models a conductively-propagated deflagration wave (“flame”) in a high-density, degenerate carbon-oxygen mixture. It also provides an example for use of the other_build_initial_model and other_surface_PT hooks.

hb_2M

This test case shows a 2 \({\rm M}_\odot\) stellar model evolving on the horizontal branch (HB) through core helium burning.

make_co_wd

This test case produces a 0.6 \({\rm M}_\odot\) white dwarf with a carbon-oxygen dominated core and a stratified atmosphere dominated by hydrogen at its surface. The final model produced by this test case also serves as the starting model for wd_diffusion and wd_cool_0.6M.

ppisn

This test case shows an example of a star undergoing a pulsational pair-instability supernova. The model starts from a massive helium star, and includes switches from hydrostatic to hydrodynamic models, as well as the removal of ejected layers.

R_CrB_star

This test case creates and evolves a simple model of an R Corona Borealis star and provides an example of how to use AESOPUS opacity tables in MESA.

T_tau_gradr

This test checks the implementation of the control use_T_tau_gradr_factor, which modifies the radiative gradient so that regions of low optical depth have a temperature that follows the \(T(\tau)\) relation specified by atm_T_tau_relation.

wd_acc_small_dm

This test case models an accreting CO white dwarf (WD) and checks that the composition of the accreted material is being correctly tracked.

wd_aic

This test case shows an accreting ONeMg white dwarf (WD) evolving towards accretion induced collapse (AIC). It also illustrates use of the special weak rate implementation described in Section 8 of MESA III.

Binary tests

Astero tests

astero_adipls

Demonstrates how to call ADIPLS using the astero module.

astero_gyre

Demonstrates how to call GYRE using the astero module. Note that GYRE can also be called directly, without using the astero module. See the gyre_in_mesa_* test cases in star’s test suite.

example_astero

An example optimisation run of the astero module, based on the CoRoT target HD 49385. This is the usual starting point if you want to optimise model parameters using the astero module.

surface_effects

Tests the implementation of the various surface effect corrections available in MESA.