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phonors

Rust kernels for phonopy and phono3py

phonors v0.3.0 101.5K downloads/30d#12,927 on PyPI10
Permissive license BSD-3-Clause Active released

What it is and what it does

Phonors is a Rust extension module that provides optimized numerical kernels for phonopy and phono3py, two widely used tools for computing phonon properties in crystalline materials. It replaces the original C implementations with Rust code, aiming to improve performance in the heavy numerical computations that dominate these workflows. The package is distributed as pre-built wheels for Python 3.10 and later across major platforms (x86_64, aarch64, macOS, Windows), making installation straightforward for most users.

The module is designed to be used transparently: phono3py can pull it in via the `phono3py[rust]` extra, and phonopy will eventually use it as its C kernels are ported. Since it has no runtime dependencies beyond Python itself, it integrates cleanly into existing phonopy/phono3py installations. The package is in active development (Beta status) with recent releases and a maintained repository.

Use it for:

  • Accelerate phonon band structure and density-of-state calculations in phono3py workflows
  • Speed up thermal property computations in phonopy by replacing C kernels with Rust implementations
  • Reduce wall-clock time in high-throughput phonon screening studies across many materials
  • Enable faster iterative phonon calculations during materials design and optimization
  • Improve performance on multi-core systems where Rust's parallelism can be leveraged

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Phonors provides Rust-accelerated numerical kernels for phonopy and phono3py, replacing their C implementations with faster Rust code to speed up phonon calculations.

Yes, if you use phono3py or phonopy for phonon calculations. The package is actively maintained, has no external runtime dependencies, installs cleanly on modern Python (3.10+), carries a permissive license, and offers performance gains in computationally heavy workflows. Install via `pip install phonors` or enable it in phono3py with the `[rust]` extra.

Install

phonors on PyPI

pip

pip install phonors

uv

uv add phonors

poetry

poetry add phonors

Installing phonors

Before you install

Medium install friction due to compiled wheels; however, wheels are available for modern Python (3.10+) across common platforms (x86_64, aarch64, macOS, Windows), and the package is actively maintained with a recent release.

License in practice

BSD-3-Clause is permissive and places minimal restrictions on use, modification, or distribution in both open and proprietary contexts.

Quickstart

pip install phonors

import phonors
# Use via phono3py[rust] extra or directly in phonopy workflows

Requires Python 3.10 or later; wheels are pre-built for common architectures but may require compilation on unsupported platforms.

Verify before relying

  • Exact performance improvement over C kernels in typical workflows
  • API stability and backward compatibility guarantees across minor versions
  • Whether phonopy integration is complete or still in progress

Package facts

License BSD-3-Clause (permissive)
Python support supports the current Python release (>=3.10)
Install friction medium — platform-specific wheel
Runtime dependencies none
Maintenance actively maintained — 48 days since the last release
Last repo commit
First released
Downloads 101,512/month — #12,927 on PyPI (30-day window, as of 2026-08-14)
Known vulnerabilities none known (OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14)

Evidence: phonors-0.3.0-cp310-abi3-macosx_10_12_x86_64.whl; phonors-0.3.0-cp310-abi3-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; phonors-0.3.0-cp310-abi3-manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux2014_aarch64.whl; phonors-0.3.0-cp310-abi3-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl; phonors-0.3.0-cp310-abi3-win_amd64.whl; phonors-0.3.0-cp310-abi3-win_arm64.whl

Development Status :: 4 - BetaIntended Audience :: Science/ResearchOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: OnlyProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Programming Language :: RustTopic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Physics

Tags

phonon calculation accelerationrust kernels phonopyphono3py performancelattice dynamics computationphonopy extension module
rust-extensioncomputational-physicsperformance-optimization

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