Grids

Introduction

Most of the functionality of Synthesizer is reliant on grid files. These are typically precomputed multi-dimensional arrays of spectra (and lines) from Stellar Population Synthesis (SPS) models for a range of ages and metallicities, and potentially other parameters (see below). Grids can also represent the emission from other sources, e.g. active galactic nuclei (AGN) for a range of black hole masses and accretion rates, and other parameters related to the line emitting region.

There is a low-resolution test grid available via the synthesizer-download command line tool, but for actual projects you will need one or more full production grids from the Syndex catalogue. Download a selected grid with synthesizer-download --dataset <name>. See details below on where on your system to download these grids and how to load them.

• Pre-Computed Grids
• The Grid Object
• Modifying Grids
• Lines from Grid objects
• Creating your own grids