Hello, I am trying to implement PSMC in some analyses I with dummy data to fully understand how does this software work.

However, I am really struggling to understand what does the -p parameter mean. Normally, when you call psmc, you can do it like:

psmc -N10 -t5 -r1 -p "4+30*2+4+6" -o $name.psmc $name.consensus.psmcfa

These are the explanation that psmc provides for each parameter:

Program: psmc (Pairwise SMC Model)
Version: 0.6.5-r67
Contact: <http://hengli.uservoice.com/>

Usage:   psmc [options] input.txt

Options: -p STR      pattern of parameters [4+5*3+4]
         -t FLOAT    maximum 2N0 coalescent time [15]
         -N INT      maximum number of iterations [30]
         -r FLOAT    initial theta/rho ratio [4]
         -c FILE     CpG counts generated by cntcpg [null]
         -o FILE     output file [stdout]
         -i FILE     input parameter file [null]
         -T FLOAT    initial divergence time; -1 to disable [-1]
         -b          bootstrap (input be preprocessed with split_psmcfa)
         -S          simulate sequence
         -d          perform decoding
         -D          print full posterior probabilities

I know that the -p parameter (4+302+4+6) depends on the distribution of coalescent blocks or the discrete time intervals that the population has a constant size. However, I still don't get how I should create* my -p parameter depending on my population. Could anyone help me or telling me where I can find this information? The Readme from psmc is not very clearfull..

Thank you so much in advance.