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Astrophysics Source Code Library

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[ascl:1204.014] WOMBAT: sWift Objects for Mhd BAsed on Tvd

WOMBAT (sWift Objects for Mhd BAsed on Tvd) is an astrophysical fluid code that is an implementation of a non-relativistic MHD TVD scheme; an extension for relativistic MHD has been added. The code operates on 1, 2, and 3D Eulerian meshes (cartesian and cylindrical coordinates) with magnetic field divergence restriction controlled by a constrained transport (CT) scheme. The user can tune code performance to a given processor based on chip cache sizes. Proper settings yield significant speed-ups due to efficient cache reuse.

[ascl:1204.015] PROFIT: Emission-line PROfile FITting routine

The PROFIT is an IDL routine to do automated fitting of emission-line profiles by Gaussian curves or Gauss-Hermite series optimized for use in Integral Field and Fabry-Perot data cubes. As output PROFIT gives two-dimensional FITS files for the emission-line flux distribution, centroid velocity, velocity dispersion and higher order Gauss-Hermite moments (h3 and h4).

[ascl:1204.016] ASCfit: Automatic Stellar Coordinate Fitting Package

A modular software package for automatically fitting astrometric world coordinates (WCS) onto raw optical or infrared FITS images. Image stars are identified with stars in a reference catalog (USNO-A2 or 2MASS), and coordinates derived as a simple linear transformation from (X,Y) pixels to (RA,DEC) to the accuracy level of the reference catalog used. The package works with both optical and infrared images, at sidereal and non-sidereal tracking rates.

[ascl:1204.017] epsnoise: Pixel noise in ellipticity and shear measurements

epsnoise simulates pixel noise in weak-lensing ellipticity and shear measurements. This open-source python code can efficiently create an intrinsic ellipticity distribution, shear it, and add noise, thereby mimicking a "perfect" measurement that is not affected by shape-measurement biases. For theoretical studies, we provide the Marsaglia distribution, which describes the ratio of normal variables in the general case of non-zero mean and correlation. We also added a convenience method that evaluates the Marsaglia distribution for the ratio of moments of a Gaussian-shaped brightness distribution, which gives a very good approximation of the measured ellipticity distribution also for galaxies with different radial profiles. We provide four shear estimators, two based on the ε ellipticity measure, two on χ. While three of them are essentially plain averages, we introduce a new estimator which requires a functional minimization.

[ascl:1203.001] AE: ACIS Extract

ACIS Extract (AE), written in the IDL language, provides innovative and automated solutions to the varied challenges found in the analysis of X-ray data taken by the ACIS instrument on NASA's Chandra observatory. AE addresses complications found in many Chandra projects: large numbers of point sources (hundreds to several thousand), faint point sources, misaligned multiple observations of an astronomical field, point source crowding, and scientifically relevant diffuse emission. AE can perform virtually all the data processing and analysis tasks that lie between Level 2 ACIS data and publishable LaTeX tables of point-like and diffuse source properties and spectral models.

[ascl:1203.002] GALAPAGOS: Galaxy Analysis over Large Areas: Parameter Assessment by GALFITting Objects from SExtractor

GALAPAGOS, Galaxy Analysis over Large Areas: Parameter Assessment by GALFITting Objects from SExtractor (ascl:1010.064), automates source detection, two-dimensional light-profile Sersic modelling and catalogue compilation in large survey applications. Based on a single setup, GALAPAGOS can process a complete set of survey images. It detects sources in the data, estimates a local sky background, cuts postage stamp images for all sources, prepares object masks, performs Sersic fitting including neighbours and compiles all objects in a final output catalogue. For the initial source detection GALAPAGOS applies SExtractor, while GALFIT (ascl:1104.010) is incorporated for modelling Sersic profiles. It measures the background sky involved in the Sersic fitting by means of a flux growth curve. GALAPAGOS determines postage stamp sizes based on SExtractor shape parameters. In order to obtain precise model parameters GALAPAGOS incorporates a complex sorting mechanism and makes use of multiplexing capabilities. It combines SExtractor and GALFIT data in a single output table. When incorporating information from overlapping tiles, GALAPAGOS automatically removes multiple entries from identical sources.

GALAPAGOS is programmed in the Interactive Data Language, IDL. A C implementation of the software, GALAPAGOS-C (ascl:1408.011), is available, and a multi-band Galapagos version is also available.

[ascl:1203.003] spec2d: DEEP2 DEIMOS Spectral Pipeline

The DEEP2 DEIMOS Data Reduction Pipeline ("spec2d") is an IDL-based, automated software package designed to reduce Keck/DEIMOS multi-slit spectroscopic observations, collected as part of the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey. The pipeline is best suited for handling data taken with the 1200 line/mm grating tilted towards the red (lambda_c ~ 7800Å). The spec2d reduction package takes the raw DEIMOS data as its input and produces a variety of outputs including 2-d slit spectra and 1-d object spectra.

[ascl:1203.004] FERENGI: Full and Efficient Redshifting of Ensembles of Nearby Galaxy Images

Bandpass shifting and the (1+z)5 surface brightness dimming (for a fixed width filter) make standard tools for the extraction of structural parameters of galaxies wavelength dependent. If only few (or one) observed high-res bands exist, this dependence has to be corrected to make unbiased statements on the evolution of structural parameters or on galaxy subsamples defined by morphology. FERENGI artificially redshifts low-redshift galaxy images to different redshifts by applying the correct cosmological corrections for size, surface brightness and bandpass shifting. A set of artificially redshifted galaxies in the range 0.1<z<1.1 using a set of ~100 SDSS low-redshift (v<7000 km s-1) images as input has been created to use as a training set of realistic images of galaxies of diverse morphologies and a large range of redshifts for the GEMS and COSMOS galaxy evolution projects. This training set allows other studies to investigate and quantify the effects of cosmological redshift on the determination of galaxy morphologies, distortions, and other galaxy properties that are potentially sensitive to resolution, surface brightness, and bandpass issues. The data sets are also available for download from the FERENGI website.

[ascl:1203.005] Gyoto: General relativitY Orbit Tracer of Observatoire de Paris

GYOTO, a general relativistic ray-tracing code, aims at computing images of astronomical bodies in the vicinity of compact objects, as well as trajectories of massive bodies in relativistic environments. This code is capable of integrating the null and timelike geodesic equations not only in the Kerr metric, but also in any metric computed numerically within the 3+1 formalism of general relativity. Simulated images and spectra have been computed for a variety of astronomical targets, such as a moving star or a toroidal accretion structure. The underlying code is open source and freely available. It is user-friendly, quickly handled and very modular so that extensions are easy to integrate. Custom analytical metrics and astronomical targets can be implemented in C++ plug-in extensions independent from the main code.

[ascl:1203.006] EMACSS: Evolve Me A Cluster of StarS

The star cluster evolution code Evolve Me A Cluster of StarS (EMACSS) is a simple yet physically motivated computational model that describes the evolution of some fundamental properties of star clusters in static tidal fields. The prescription is based upon the flow of energy within the cluster, which is a constant fraction of the total energy per half-mass relaxation time. According to Henon's predictions, this flow is independent of the precise mechanisms for energy production within the core, and therefore does not require a complete description of the many-body interactions therein. Dynamical theory and analytic descriptions of escape mechanisms is used to construct a series of coupled differential equations expressing the time evolution of cluster mass and radius for a cluster of equal-mass stars. These equations are numerically solved using a fourth-order Runge-Kutta integration kernel; the results were benchmarked against a data base of direct N-body simulations. EMACSS is publicly available and reproduces the N-body results to within ~10 per cent accuracy for the entire post-collapse evolution of star clusters.

[ascl:1203.007] EBTEL: Enthalpy-Based Thermal Evolution of Loops

Observational and theoretical evidence suggests that coronal heating is impulsive and occurs on very small cross-field spatial scales. A single coronal loop could contain a hundred or more individual strands that are heated quasi-independently by nanoflares. It is therefore an enormous undertaking to model an entire active region or the global corona. Three-dimensional MHD codes have inadequate spatial resolution, and 1D hydro codes are too slow to simulate the many thousands of elemental strands that must be treated in a reasonable representation. Fortunately, thermal conduction and flows tend to smooth out plasma gradients along the magnetic field, so "0D models" are an acceptable alternative. We have developed a highly efficient model called Enthalpy-Based Thermal Evolution of Loops (EBTEL) that accurately describes the evolution of the average temperature, pressure, and density along a coronal strand. It improves significantly upon earlier models of this type--in accuracy, flexibility, and capability. It treats both slowly varying and highly impulsive coronal heating; it provides the differential emission measure distribution, DEM(T), at the transition region footpoints; and there are options for heat flux saturation and nonthermal electron beam heating. EBTEL gives excellent agreement with far more sophisticated 1D hydro simulations despite using four orders of magnitude less computing time. It promises to be a powerful new tool for solar and stellar studies.

[ascl:1203.008] MegaLUT: Correcting ellipticity measurements of galaxies

MegaLUT is a simple and fast method to correct ellipticity measurements of galaxies from the distortion by the instrumental and atmospheric point spread function (PSF), in view of weak lensing shear measurements. The method performs a classification of galaxies and associated PSFs according to measured shape parameters, and builds a lookup table of ellipticity corrections by supervised learning. This new method has been applied to the GREAT10 image analysis challenge, and demonstrates a refined solution that obtains the highly competitive quality factor of Q = 142, without any power spectrum denoising or training. Of particular interest is the efficiency of the method, with a processing time below 3 ms per galaxy on an ordinary CPU.

[ascl:1203.009] MYRIAD: N-body code for simulations of star clusters

MYRIAD is a C++ code for collisional N-body simulations of star clusters. The code uses the Hermite fourth-order scheme with block time steps, for advancing the particles in time, while the forces and neighboring particles are computed using the GRAPE-6 board. Special treatment is used for close encounters, binary and multiple sub-systems that either form dynamically or exist in the initial configuration. The structure of the code is modular and allows the appropriate treatment of more physical phenomena, such as stellar and binary evolution, stellar collisions and evolution of close black-hole binaries. Moreover, it can be easily modified so that the part of the code that uses GRAPE-6 could be replaced by another module that uses other accelerating-hardware like the Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Appropriate choice of the free parameters give a good accuracy and speed for simulations of star clusters up to and beyond core collapse. The code accuracy becomes comparable and even better than the accuracy of existing codes when a number of close binary systems is dynamically created in a simulation; this is due to the high accuracy of the method that is used for close binary and multiple sub-systems. The code can be used for evolving star clusters containing equal-mass stars or star clusters with an initial mass function (IMF) containing an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) at the center and/or a fraction of primordial binaries, which are systems of particular astrophysical interest.

[ascl:1203.010] Youpi: YOUr processing PIpeline

Youpi is a portable, easy to use web application providing high level functionalities to perform data reduction on scientific FITS images. Built on top of various open source reduction tools released to the community by TERAPIX (http://terapix.iap.fr), Youpi can help organize data, manage processing jobs on a computer cluster in real time (using Condor) and facilitate teamwork by allowing fine-grain sharing of results and data. Youpi is modular and comes with plugins which perform, from within a browser, various processing tasks such as evaluating the quality of incoming images (using the QualityFITS software package), computing astrometric and photometric solutions (using SCAMP), resampling and co-adding FITS images (using SWarp) and extracting sources and building source catalogues from astronomical images (using SExtractor). Youpi is useful for small to medium-sized data reduction projects; it is free and is published under the GNU General Public License.

[ascl:1203.011] SALT2: Spectral Adaptive Lightcurve Template

SALT (Spectral Adaptive Lightcurve Template) is a package for Type Ia Supernovae light curve fitting. Its main purpose is to provide a distance estimator but it can also be used for photometric redshifts, and spectroscopic + photometric identification. This code is also known by the name snfit.

[ascl:1203.012] Astrometrica: Astrometric data reduction of CCD images

Astrometrica is an interactive software tool for scientific grade astrometric data reduction of CCD images. The current version of the software is for the Windows 32bit operating system family. Astrometrica reads FITS (8, 16 and 32 bit integer files) and SBIG image files. The size of the images is limited only by available memory. It also offers automatic image calibration (Dark Frame and Flat Field correction), automatic reference star identification, automatic moving object detection and identification, and access to new-generation star catalogs (PPMXL, UCAC 3 and CMC-14), in addition to online help and other features. Astrometrica is shareware, available for use for a limited period of time (100 days) for free; special arrangements can be made for educational projects.

[ascl:1203.013] Figaro: Data Reduction Software

Figaro (sometimes referred to as "standalone Figaro") is a data reduction system that originated at Caltech and whose development continued at the Anglo-Australian Observatory. Although it is intended to be able to deal with any sort of data, almost all its applications to date are geared towards processing optical and infrared data. Figaro uses hierarchical data structures to provide flexibility in its data file formats. Figaro was originally written to run under DEC's VMS operating system, but is now available both for VAX/VMS (by special request) and for various flavors of UNIX including Linux and MacOS.

A variant of Figaro (ascl:1411.022) is incorporated into the Starlink package (ascl:1110.012).

[ascl:1202.001] CISM_DX: Visualization and analysis tool

CISM_DX is a community-developed suite of integrated data, models, and data and model explorers, for research and education. The data and model explorers are based on code written for OpenDX and Octave; OpenDX provides the visualization infrastructures as well as the process for creating user interfaces to the model and data, and Octave allows for extensive data manipulation and reduction operations. The CISM-DX package extends the capabilities of the core software programs to meet the needs of space physics researchers.

[ascl:1202.002] ZODIPIC: Zodiacal Cloud Image Synthesis

ZODIPIC synthesizes images of exozodiacal clouds. As a default, ZODIPIC creates an image of the solar zodiacal cloud as seen from 10 pc, but it contains many parameters that are tweakable from the command line, making it a handy general-purpose model for optically-thin debris disks that yields both accurate images and photometric information simultaneously. Written in IDL, ZODIPIC includes dust with real optical constants, user-specified dust maps and can compute images as seen through a linear polarizer.

[ascl:1202.003] NOVAS: Naval Observatory Vector Astrometry Software

NOVAS is an integrated package of subroutines and functions for computing various commonly needed quantities in positional astronomy. The package can provide, in one or two subroutine or function calls, the instantaneous coordinates of any star or planet in a variety of coordinate systems. At a lower level, NOVAS also supplies astrometric utility transformations, such as those for precession, nutation, aberration, parallax, and the gravitational deflection of light. The computations are accurate to better than one milliarcsecond. The NOVAS package is an easy-to-use facility that can be incorporated into data reduction programs, telescope control systems, and simulations. The U.S. parts of The Astronomical Almanac are prepared using NOVAS. Three editions of NOVAS are available: Fortran, C, and Python.

[ascl:1202.004] TALYS: Nuclear Reaction Simulator

TALYS simulates nuclear reactions which involve neutrons, gamma-rays, protons, deuterons, tritons, helions and alpha-particles, in the 1 keV-200MeV energy range. A suite of nuclear reaction models has been implemented into a single code system, enabling one to evaluate basically all nuclear reactions beyond the resonance range. In particular, TALYS estimates the Maxwellian-averaged reaction rates that are of astrophysical relevance. This enables reaction rates to be calculated with increased accuracy and reliability and the approximations of previous codes to be investigated. The TALYS predictions for the thermonuclear rates of relevance to astrophysics are detailed and compared with those derived by widely-used codes for the same nuclear ingredients. TALYS predictions may differ significantly from those of previous codes, in particular for nuclei for which no or little nuclear data is available. The pre-equilibrium process is shown to influence the astrophysics rates of exotic neutron-rich nuclei significantly. The TALYS code provides a tool to estimate all nuclear reaction rates of relevance to astrophysics with improved accuracy and reliability.

[ascl:1202.005] Mangle: Angular Mask Software

Mangle deals accurately and efficiently with complex angular masks, such as occur typically in galaxy surveys. Mangle performs the following tasks: converts masks between many handy formats (including HEALPix); rapidly finds the polygons containing a given point on the sphere; rapidly decomposes a set of polygons into disjoint parts; expands masks in spherical harmonics; generates random points with weights given by the mask; and implements computations for correlation function analysis. To mangle, a mask is an arbitrary union of arbitrarily weighted angular regions bounded by arbitrary numbers of edges. The restrictions on the mask are only (1) that each edge must be part of some circle on the sphere (but not necessarily a great circle), and (2) that the weight within each subregion of the mask must be constant. Mangle is complementary to and integrated with the HEALPix package (ascl:1107.018); mangle works with vector graphics whereas HEALPix works with pixels.

[ascl:1202.006] CORSIKA: An Air Shower Simulation Program

CORSIKA (COsmic Ray Simulations for KAscade) is a program for detailed simulation of extensive air showers initiated by high energy cosmic ray particles. Protons, light nuclei up to iron, photons, and many other particles may be treated as primaries. The particles are tracked through the atmosphere until they undergo reactions with the air nuclei or, in the case of unstable secondaries, decay. The hadronic interactions at high energies may be described by several reaction models. Hadronic interactions at lower energies are described, and in particle decays all decay branches down to the 1% level are taken into account. Options for the generation of Cherenkov radiation and neutrinos exist. CORSIKA may be used up to and beyond the highest energies of 100 EeV.

[ascl:1202.007] CRUNCH3D: Three-dimensional compressible MHD code

CRUNCH3D is a massively parallel, viscoresistive, three-dimensional compressible MHD code. The code employs a Fourier collocation spatial discretization, and uses a second-order Runge-Kutta temporal discretization. CRUNCH3D can be applied to MHD turbulence and magnetic fluxtube reconnection research.

[ascl:1202.008] Chombo: Adaptive Solutions of Partial Differential Equations

Chombo provides a set of tools for implementing finite difference methods for the solution of partial differential equations on block-structured adaptively refined rectangular grids. Both elliptic and time-dependent modules are included. Chombo supports calculations in complex geometries with both embedded boundaries and mapped grids, and also supports particle methods. Most parallel platforms are supported, and cross-platform self-describing file formats are included.

The Chombo package is a product of the community of Collaborators working with the Applied Numerical Algorithms Group (ANAG), part of the Computational Research Division at LBNL.

[ascl:1202.009] MOOG: LTE line analysis and spectrum synthesis

MOOG performs a variety of LTE line analysis and spectrum synthesis tasks. The typical use of MOOG is to assist in the determination of the chemical composition of a star. The basic equations of LTE stellar line analysis are followed. The coding is in various subroutines that are called from a few driver routines; these routines are written in standard FORTRAN. The standard MOOG version has been developed on unix, linux and macintosh computers.

One of the chief assets of MOOG is its ability to do on-line graphics. The plotting commands are given within the FORTRAN code. MOOG uses the graphics package SM, chosen for its ease of implementation in FORTRAN codes. Plotting calls are concentrated in just a few routines, and it should be possible for users of other graphics packages to substitute other appropriate FORTRAN commands.

[ascl:1202.010] SPECTRE: Manipulation of single-order spectra

SPECTRE's chief purpose is the manipulation of single-order spectra, and it performs many of the tasks contained in such IRAF routines as "splot" and "rv". It is not meant to replace the much more general capabilities of IRAF, but does some functions in a manner that some might find useful. A brief list of SPECTRE tasks are: spectrum smoothing; equivalent width calculation; continuum rectification; noise spike excision; and spectrum comparison. SPECTRE was written to manipulate coude spectra, and thus is probably most useful for working on high dispersion spectra. Echelle spectra can be gathered from various observatories, reduced to singly-dimensioned spectra using IRAF, then written out as FITS files, thus becoming accessible to SPECTRE. Three different spectra may be manipulated and displayed simultaneously. SPECTRE, written in standard FORTRAN77, can be used only with the SM graphics package.

[ascl:1202.011] Lattimer-Swesty Equation of State Code

The Lattimer-Swesty Equation of State code is rapid enough to use directly in hydrodynamical simulations such as stellar collapse calculations. It contains an adjustable nuclear force that accurately models both potential and mean-field interactions and allows for the input of various nuclear parameters, including the bulk incompressibility parameter, the bulk and surface symmetry energies, the symmetric matter surface tension, and the nucleon effective masses. This permits parametric studies of the equation of state in astrophysical situations. The equation of state is modeled after the Lattimer, Lamb, Pethick, and Ravenhall (LLPR) compressible liquid drop model for nuclei, and includes the effects of interactions and degeneracy of the nucleon outside nuclei.

[ascl:1202.012] CoCoNuT: General relativistic hydrodynamics code with dynamical space-time evolution

CoCoNuT is a general relativistic hydrodynamics code with dynamical space-time evolution. The main aim of this numerical code is the study of several astrophysical scenarios in which general relativity can play an important role, namely the collapse of rapidly rotating stellar cores and the evolution of isolated neutron stars. The code has two flavors: CoCoA, the axisymmetric (2D) magnetized version, and CoCoNuT, the 3D non-magnetized version.

[ascl:1202.013] SME: Spectroscopy Made Easy

Spectroscopy Made Easy (SME) is IDL software and a compiled external library that fits an observed high-resolution stellar spectrum with a synthetic spectrum to determine stellar parameters. The SME external library is available for Mac, Linux, and Windows systems. Atomic and molecular line data formatted for SME may be obtained from VALD. SME can solve for empirical log(gf) and damping parameters, using an observed spectrum of a star (usually the Sun) as a constraint.

[ascl:1202.014] FISA: Fast Integrated Spectra Analyzer

FISA (Fast Integrated Spectra Analyzer) permits fast and reasonably accurate age and reddening determinations for small angular diameter open clusters by using their integrated spectra in the (3600-7400) AA range and currently available template spectrum libraries. This algorithm and its implementation help to achieve astrophysical results in shorter times than from other methods. FISA has successfully been applied to integrated spectroscopy of open clusters, both in the Galaxy and in the Magellanic Clouds, to determine ages and reddenings.

[ascl:1202.015] RADMC-3D: A multi-purpose radiative transfer tool

RADMC-3D is a software package for astrophysical radiative transfer calculations in arbitrary 1-D, 2-D or 3-D geometries. It is mainly written for continuum radiative transfer in dusty media, but also includes modules for gas line transfer and gas continuum transfer. RADMC-3D is a new incarnation of the older software package RADMC (ascl:1108.016).

[ascl:1201.001] McScatter: Three-Body Scattering with Stellar Evolution

McScatter illustrates a method of combining stellar dynamics with stellar evolution. The method is intended for elaborate applications, especially the dynamical evolution of rich star clusters. The dynamics is based on binary scattering in a multi-mass field of stars with uniform density and velocity dispersion, using the scattering cross section of Giersz (MNRAS, 2001, 324, 218-30).

[ascl:1201.002] Roche: Visualization and analysis tool for Roche-lobe geometry of evolving binaries

Roche is a visualization and analysis tool for drawing the Roche-lobe geometry of evolving binaries. Roche can be used as a standalone program reading data from the command line or from a file generated by SeBa (ascl:1201.003). Eventually Roche will be able to read data from any other binary evolution program. Roche requires Starlab (ascl:1010.076) version 4.1.1 or later and the pgplot (ascl:1103.002) libraries. Roche creates a series of images, based on the SeBa output file SeBa.data, displaying the evolutionary state of a binary.

[ascl:1201.003] SeBa: Stellar and binary evolution

SeBa is the stellar and binary evolution module, fully integrated into the kira N-body integrator, for Starlab (ascl:1010.076), although it can also be used as a stand-alone module for non-dynamical applications. Due to the interaction between stellar evolution and stellar dynamics, it is difficult to solve for the evolution of both systems in a completely self-consistent way. The trajectories of stars are computed using a block timestep scheme, as described earlier. Stellar and binary evolution is updated at fixed intervals (every 1/64 of a crossing time, typically a few thousand years). Any feedback between the two systems may thus experience a delay of at most one timestep. Internal evolution time steps may differ for each star and binary, and depend on binary period, perturbations due to neighbors, and the evolutionary state of the star. Time steps in this treatment vary from several milliseconds up to (at most) a million years.

[ascl:1201.004] emGain: Determination of EM gain of CCD

The determination of the EM gain of the CCD is best done by fitting the histogram of many low-light frames. Typically, the dark+CIC noise of a 30ms frame itself is a sufficient amount of signal to determine accurately the EM gain with about 200 512x512 frames. The IDL code emGain takes as an input a cube of frames and fit the histogram of all the pixels with the EM stage output probability function. The function returns the EM gain of the frames as well as the read-out noise and the mean signal level of the frames.

[ascl:1201.005] 2LPTIC: 2nd-order Lagrangian Perturbation Theory Initial Conditions

Setting initial conditions in numerical simulations using the standard procedure based on the Zel'dovich approximation (ZA) generates incorrect second and higher-order growth and therefore excites long-lived transients in the evolution of the statistical properties of density and velocity fields. Using more accurate initial conditions based on second-order Lagrangian perturbation theory (2LPT) reduces transients significantly; initial conditions based on 2LPT are thus much more appropriate for numerical simulations devoted to precision cosmology. The 2LPTIC code provides initial conditions for running cosmological simulations based on second-order Lagrangian Perturbation Theory (2LPT), rather than first-order (Zel'dovich approximation).

[ascl:1201.006] VIM: Visual Integration and Mining

VIM (Virtual Observatory Integration and Mining) is a data retrieval and exploration application that assumes an astronomer has a list of 'sources' (positions in the sky), and wants to explore archival catalogs, images, and spectra of the sources, in order to identify, select, and mine the list. VIM does this either through web forms, building a custom 'data matrix,' or locally through downloadable Python code. Any VO-registered catalog service can be used by VIM, as well as co-registered image cutouts from VO-image services, and spectra from VO-spectrum services. The user could, for example, show together: proper motions from GSC2, name and spectral type from NED, magnitudes and colors from 2MASS, and cutouts and spectra from SDSS. VIM can compute columns across surveys and sort on these (eg. 2MASS J magnitude minus SDSS g). For larger sets of sources, VIM utilizes the asynchronous Nesssi services from NVO, that can run thousands of cone and image services overnight.

[ascl:1201.007] Fisher4Cast: Fisher Matrix Toolbox

The Fisher4Cast suite, which requires MatLab, provides a standard, tested tool set for general Fisher Information matrix prediction and forecasting for use in both research and education. The toolbox design is robust and modular, allowing for easy additions and adaptation while keeping the user interface intuitive and easy to use. Fisher4Cast is completely general but the default is coded for cosmology. It provides parameter error forecasts for cosmological surveys providing distance, Hubble expansion and growth measurements in a general, curved FLRW background.

[ascl:1201.008] Mercury: A software package for orbital dynamics

Mercury is a new general-purpose software package for carrying out orbital integrations for problems in solar-system dynamics. Suitable applications include studying the long-term stability of the planetary system, investigating the orbital evolution of comets, asteroids or meteoroids, and simulating planetary accretion. Mercury is designed to be versatile and easy to use, accepting initial conditions in either Cartesian coordinates or Keplerian elements in "cometary" or "asteroidal" format, with different epochs of osculation for different objects. Output from an integration consists of osculating elements, written in a machine-independent compressed format, which allows the results of a calculation performed on one platform to be transferred (e.g. via FTP) and decoded on another.

During an integration, Mercury monitors and records details of close encounters, sungrazing events, ejections and collisions between objects. The effects of non-gravitational forces on comets can also be modeled. The package supports integrations using a mixed-variable symplectic routine, the Bulirsch-Stoer method, and a hybrid code for planetary accretion calculations.

[ascl:1201.009] ExoFit: Orbital parameters of extra-solar planets from radial velocity

ExoFit is a freely available software package for estimating orbital parameters of extra-solar planets. ExoFit can search for either one or two planets and employs a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method to fit a Keplerian radial velocity curve onto the radial velocity data.

[ascl:1201.010] HNBody: Hierarchical N-Body Symplectic Integration Package

HNBody is a new set of software utilities geared to the integration of hierarchical (nearly-Keplerian) N-body systems. Our focus is on symplectic methods, and we have included explicit support for three classes of particles (heavy, light, and massless), second and fourth order methods, post-Newtonian corrections, and the use of a symplectic corrector (among other things). For testing purposes, we also provide support for more general integration schemes (Bulirsch-Stoer & Runge-Kutta). Configuration files employing an intuitive syntax allow for easy problem setup, and many simple simulations can be done without the user compiling any code. Low-level interfaces are also available, enabling extensive customization.

[ascl:1201.011] Duchamp: A 3D source finder for spectral-line data

Duchamp is software designed to find and describe sources in 3-dimensional, spectral-line data cubes. Duchamp has been developed with HI (neutral hydrogen) observations in mind, but is widely applicable to many types of astronomical images. It features efficient source detection and handling methods, noise suppression via smoothing or multi-resolution wavelet reconstruction, and a range of graphical and text-based outputs to allow the user to understand the detections.

[ascl:1201.012] CLUMPY: A code for gamma-ray signals from dark matter structures

CLUMPY is a public code for semi-analytical calculation of the gamma-ray flux astrophysical J-factor from dark matter annihilation/decay in the Galaxy, including dark matter substructures. The core of the code is the calculation of the line of sight integral of the dark matter density squared (for annihilations) or density (for decaying dark matter). The code can be used in three modes: i) to draw skymaps from the Galactic smooth component and/or the substructure contributions, ii) to calculate the flux from a specific halo (that is not the Galactic halo, e.g. dwarf spheroidal galaxies) or iii) to perform simple statistical operations from a list of allowed DM profiles for a given object. Extragalactic contributions and other tracers of DM annihilation (e.g. positrons, antiprotons) will be included in a second release.

[ascl:1201.013] SPS: SPIRE Photometer Simulator

The SPS software simulates the operation of the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver on-board the ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory. It is coded using the Interactive Data Language (IDL), and produces simulated data at the level-0 stage (non-calibrated data in digitised units). The primary uses for the simulator are to:

  • optimize and characterize the photometer observing functions
  • aid in the development, validation, and characterization of the SPIRE data pipeline
  • provide a realistic example of SPIRE data, and thus to facilitate the development of specific analysis tools for specific science cases.
It should be noted that the SPS is not an officially supported product of the SPIRE ICC, and was originally developed for ICC use only. Consequently the SPS can be supported only on a "best efforts" basis.

[ascl:1201.014] Hammurabi: Simulating polarized Galactic synchrotron emission

The Hammurabi code is a publicly available C++ code for generating mock polarized observations of Galactic synchrotron emission with telescopes such as LOFAR, SKA, Planck, and WMAP, based on model inputs for the Galactic magnetic field (GMF), the cosmic-ray density distribution, and the thermal electron density. The Hammurabi code allows one to perform simulations of several different data sets simultaneously, providing a more reliable constraint of the magnetized ISM.

[ascl:1201.015] FFTW: Fastest Fourier Transform in the West

FFTW is a C subroutine library for computing the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) in one or more dimensions, of arbitrary input size, and of both real and complex data (as well as of even/odd data, i.e. the discrete cosine/sine transforms or DCT/DST).

Benchmarks performed on a variety of platforms show that FFTW's performance is typically superior to that of other publicly available FFT software, and is even competitive with vendor-tuned codes. In contrast to vendor-tuned codes, however, FFTW's performance is portable: the same program will perform well on most architectures without modification.

The FFTW library is required by other codes such as StarCrash (ascl:1010.074) and Hammurabi (ascl:1201.014).

[ascl:1201.016] LumFunc: Luminosity Function Modeling

LumFunc is a numerical code to model the Luminosity Function based on central galaxy luminosity-halo mass and total galaxy luminosity-halo mass relations. The code can handle rest b_J-band (2dFGRS), r'-band (SDSS), and K-band luminosities, and any redshift with redshift dependences specified by the user. It separates the luminosity function (LF) to conditional luminosity functions, LF as a function of halo mass, and also to galaxy types. By specifying a narrow mass range, the code will return the conditional luminosity functions. The code returns luminosity functions for galaxy types as well (broadly divided to early-type and late-type). The code also models the cluster luminosity function, either mass averaged or for individual clusters.

[ascl:1201.017] Inflation: Monte-Carlo Code for Slow-Roll Inflation

Inflation is a numerical code to generate power spectra and other observables through numerical solutions to flow equations. The code generates tensor and scalar power spectra as a function of wavenumber and various other parameters at specific wavenumbers of interest (such as for CMB, scalar perturbations at smaller scales, gravitational wave detection at direct detection frequencies). The output can be easily ported to publicly available Markov Chain codes to constrain cosmological parameters with data.

[ascl:1112.001] Eclipse: ESO C Library for an Image Processing Software Environment

Written in ANSI C, eclipse is a library offering numerous services related to astronomical image processing: FITS data access, various image and cube loading methods, binary image handling and filtering (including convolution and morphological filters), 2-D cross-correlation, connected components, cube and image arithmetic, dead pixel detection and correction, object detection, data extraction, flat-fielding with robust fit, image generation, statistics, photometry, image-space resampling, image combination, and cube stacking. It also contains support for mathematical tools like random number generation, FFT, curve fitting, matrices, fast median computation, and point-pattern matching. The main feature of this library is its ability to handle large amounts of input data (up to 2GB in the current version) regardless of the amount of memory and swap available on the local machine. Another feature is the very high speed allowed by optimized C, making it an ideal base tool for programming efficient number-crunching applications, e.g., on parallel (Beowulf) systems.

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