Changes

Version 0.2.0

Overview

The code has been updated to run with Python 3 and can now be installed from PyPI. Documentation has been moved to Read The Docs.

The deproject module now requires Astropy, which can be installed within CIAO 4.11. The three main areas where Astropy functionality is used are:

The deproject_from_xflt() helper function has been introduced, which uses the XFLT0001 to XFLT0005 keywords in the input files to determine the annulus parameters (radii and covering angle). The covering angle (\(\theta\)) can now vary per annulus.

Error values can now be generated using the onion-peeling approach, for the confidence and covariance methods, and the values are returned as an Astropy Table. Parameter values can now be tied together (to combine annuli to try and avoid “ringing”). There is improved support for accessing and plotting values.

Details

The code has been re-arranged into the deproject package, which means that you really should say from deproject.deproject import Deproject, but the deproject module re-exports deproject.deproject so that existing scripts still work, and you do not not have to type in the same word multiple times! The package has been updated so that it is available on PyPI.

The scaling between shells (calculated from the intersection between spheres and cylinders) was limited to 5 decimal places, which could cause problems with certain choices of annuli (such as an annulus making no contribution to interior annuli). This restriction has been removed.

Added support for per-annulus theta values (that is, each annulus can have a different opening angle). The radii, theta, and angdist parameters to Deproject all now require values that is an Astropy quantity rather than a dimensionless value.

Added the deproject_from_xflt() helper function, which creates a Deproject instance from PHA files which contain the XSPEC XFLT0001 to XFLT0005 keywords (as used by the projct model), rather than specifying the values from the command line. The routine will error out if the keywords indicate elliptical annuli, and the default is to assume the radii are in arcseconds, but a scaling factor can be given if the radii are in some other units (such as pixels).

Added the guess() method to do an initial fit to each annulus, following the approach suggested in the XSPEC documentation for projct, by just fitting the individual (not de-projected) models to each annulus. This can help speed up the deproject fit - fit() - as well as help avoid the fit getting stuck in a local minimum.

Added covar() and conf() methods that estimate errors - using the covariance and confidence methods respectively - using the onion-skin model (i.e. the errors on the outer annuli are evaluated, then this component is frozen and the errors on the next annulus are evaluated).

The fit(), conf(), and covar() methods now all return Astropy Tables containing the results per annulus. These values can also be retrieved with the get_fit_results(), get_conf_results(), or get_covar_results() methods. A number of columns (radii and density) are returned as Astropy quantities.

The cosmocalc module has been removed and the Astropy cosmology module is used instead. This is only used if the angular-diameter distance to the source is calculated rather than explicitly given. The default cosmology is now set to Planck15.

Values, as a function of radius, can be plotted with a number of new methods: fit_plot(), conf_plot(), and covar_plot() display the last fit results (with the last two including error estimates), and the par_plot() and density_plot() methods show the current values. These support a number of options, including switching between angular and physical distances for the radii.

The get_shells() method has been added to make it easy to see which annuli are combined together, and the get_radii() method to find the radii of the annuli (in a range of units).

Added the tie_par() and untie_par() methods to make it easy to tie (or untie) parameters in neighbouring annuli. The onion-skin approach - used when fitting or running an error analysis - recognizes annuli that are tied together and fits these simultaneously, rather than individually.

The set_source() method can now be called multiple times (previously it would lead to an error).

Added error checking for several routines, such as thaw() when given an unknown parameter name.

Updated to support Python 3.5 and to have better support when the pylab backend is selected. Support for the ChIPS backend is limited. A basic test suite has been added.

Version 0.1.0

Initial version.