OverviewΒΆ
The basic simulation and analysis facilities implemented in ixpeobssim are made available through the following Python script:
xpobssim: produce a photon list for a specific observation time, given a source model and a set of instrument response functions;
xpphase: calculate the phase of a periodic source based on ephemeris and generates a new FITS file appending the phase column.
xpophase: calculate the orbital phase for binary systems;
xpeselect: select sub-samples of photons in a given event file, based on the event energy, direction, time or phase, producing a new event file;
xpbin: allows to bin the data using several different algorithms, producing as output files binned events lists;
xpbinview: provide the visualization interface to the binned data given as input files;
xppimms: calculate the MDP for a a specific observation time, given a source model and a set of instrument response functions;
xpmdp: calculate the MDP for a a specific observation time, assuming a power-law spectrum with adjustable parameters;
xpxspec: perform a spectro-polarimetric fit in XSPEC.
Where applicable, the data formats are consistent with the common display and analysis tools used by the community, e.g., the binned count spectra can be fed into XSPEC, along with the corresponding response functions, for doing standard spectral analysis (note that the response files used are the same for the simulation and the analysis tasks.)
All the ixpeobssim simulation and analysis tools are fully configurable via command-line and the corresponding signatures are detailed here. In addition, ixpeobssim provides a pipeline facility that allow to script in Python all the aforementioned functionalities (e.g., for time-resolved polarimetry this would mean: create an observation simulation for the system under study, run xpeselect to split the photon list in a series of phase bins, run xpbin to create suitable modulation cubes for each of the data subselections and analyze the corresponding binned output files).
