AMBER: A Columnar Architecture for High-Performance Agent-Based Modeling in Python

Abstract: Agent-based modeling (ABM) has emerged as an indispensable methodology for studying complex adaptive systems across the natural and social sciences. However, Python-based ABM frameworks face a fundamental tension between the accessibility that has made Python dominant in scientific computing and the performance requirements of large-scale simulations. This paper introduces AMBER, a framework that resolves this tension through a novel architectural approach: replacing the conventional object-per-agent representation with columnar state management using the Polars DataFrame library. We analyze the computational characteristics of both paradigms, present the architectural design of AMBER including its core abstractions, spatial environments, experiment management, and optimization capabilities. Empirical evaluation on three canonical benchmarks demonstrates that AMBER achieves speedups of 1.2x to 93x depending on workload characteristics, with the greatest advantages for models dominated by population-wide attribute operations. Memory profiling reveals 30-50% reduction in peak usage compared to object-oriented frameworks. Our results establish columnar state management as a viable architectural foundation for high-performance ABM in interpreted languages.