2016/12/31 by Cameron Hummels, Britton Smith, Devin W. Silvia +1 · 95 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Absorption (acoustics) #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Computational physics #Computer science #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Optics #Physics #Python (programming language) #Quasar #Spectral line #Spectrograph #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa7e2d
published in The Astrophysical Journal 847(1), 59 (IOP Publishing) · 16 pages, 13 figures, published in ApJ, Code available at http://trident-project.org
openalex publication_date 2017/09/20 · arxiv created 2017/09/22 · arxiv updated 2017/09/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract Hydrodynamical simulations are increasingly able to accurately model physical systems on stellar, galactic, and cosmological scales; however, the utility of these simulations is often limited by our ability to directly compare them with the data sets produced by observers: spectra, photometry, etc. To address this problem, we have created trident , a Python-based open-source tool for post-processing hydrodynamical simulations to produce synthetic absorption spectra and related data. trident can (i) create absorption-line spectra for any trajectory through a simulated data set mimicking both background quasar and down-the-barrel configurations; (ii) reproduce the spectral characteristics of common instruments like the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph; (iii) operate across the ultraviolet, optical, and infrared using customizable absorption-line lists; (iv) trace simulated physical structures directly to spectral features; (v) approximate the presence of ion species absent from the simulation outputs; (vi) generate column density maps for any ion; and (vii) provide support for all major astrophysical hydrodynamical codes. trident was originally developed to aid in the interpretation of observations of the circumgalactic medium and intergalactic medium, but it remains a general tool applicable in other contexts.