There are multiple places in the DD where the ion species have names. For each of these, the documentation suggests possible examples that could be used, but those aren't all the same. For example distributions/distribution(i1)/species/ion/name suggests:
String identifying ion (e.g. H+, D+, T+, He+2, C+, …)
but distributions/distribution(i1)/global_quantities(itime)/collisions/ion(i2)/name suggests:
String identifying the species (e.g. H+, D+, T+, He+2, C+, D2, DT, CD4, …)
Similar differences exist across many other DDs including charge_exchange, core_profiles, edge_transport, pulse_schedule, radiation, turbulence, waves, ggd, and others. While monatomic vs molecular ions and different charge states may be more or less relevant in some places than others, it's strange to see the lack of standardization in these. In particular, by definition of being ions, a trailing "+" conveys no extra information and doesn't seem to be recommended consistently.
A bigger problem with this format is that it doesn't allow for distinction between isotopes (with the exception of hydrogen) such as 3He and 4He (which would both have the name He+2 following the example).
We would like the names standardized across experiments/data sources since there is no need for uniqueness in an atomic name, but the documented examples are unfortunately not consistent or specific enough. We would like to suggest that the names be standardized (they could be replaced with an index specifying the name from a predefined list to prevent breaking with the standard, but the list would have to be long and somewhat unwieldy) or at least make the documented examples match and use a format that allows for distinction between isotopes, such as H, D, T, 3He+2, 4He+2, 12C, 12C+6, D2, DT, 12CD4, 12CD4+2, .... All of the information contained in the names can also be extracted from the nuclear charge, (z_n), ion charge (z_ion), atomic mass (a), and number of atoms (atoms_n) so another option would be to deprecate the ion name from the DD to avoid conflicting uses.
There are multiple places in the DD where the ion species have names. For each of these, the documentation suggests possible examples that could be used, but those aren't all the same. For example
distributions/distribution(i1)/species/ion/namesuggests:but
distributions/distribution(i1)/global_quantities(itime)/collisions/ion(i2)/namesuggests:Similar differences exist across many other DDs including
charge_exchange,core_profiles,edge_transport,pulse_schedule,radiation,turbulence,waves,ggd, and others. While monatomic vs molecular ions and different charge states may be more or less relevant in some places than others, it's strange to see the lack of standardization in these. In particular, by definition of being ions, a trailing "+" conveys no extra information and doesn't seem to be recommended consistently.A bigger problem with this format is that it doesn't allow for distinction between isotopes (with the exception of hydrogen) such as 3He and 4He (which would both have the name
He+2following the example).We would like the names standardized across experiments/data sources since there is no need for uniqueness in an atomic name, but the documented examples are unfortunately not consistent or specific enough. We would like to suggest that the names be standardized (they could be replaced with an index specifying the name from a predefined list to prevent breaking with the standard, but the list would have to be long and somewhat unwieldy) or at least make the documented examples match and use a format that allows for distinction between isotopes, such as
H, D, T, 3He+2, 4He+2, 12C, 12C+6, D2, DT, 12CD4, 12CD4+2, .... All of the information contained in the names can also be extracted from the nuclear charge, (z_n), ion charge (z_ion), atomic mass (a), and number of atoms (atoms_n) so another option would be to deprecate the ion name from the DD to avoid conflicting uses.