Skip to content

REBOUND API

These pages describe the main features of REBOUND and its API.

There are two structures (objects in Python) which you will encounter frequently when working with REBOUND. The first is the Simulation structure which contains all the configuration, status and particle data of one REBOUND simulation. The second is the Particle structure which represents one particle in a simulation.

REBOUND is a modular code. You can combine different gravity solvers, collision detection algorithms, boundary conditions, and integration methods. Not all combinations make physically sense, and not all combinations are supported. We describe the different modules and their configuration in this section.

Also make sure to some of the other concepts documented in this section. They will help you understand the units used in REBOUND, how REBOUND handles orbital elements, how to save and load simulations to Simulationarchive files, how to use chaos indicators, how to use the browser based 3D visualization, and several other topics.

Info

Because the C and Python versions of REBOUND are very similar, we describe both languages in one documentation. The syntax and examples are provided in both C and Python. Use the tabs to switch between them.