Illuminating Halos

Overview

Illuminating Halos is a Python script designed to process and analyze halo data from cosmological simulations. The script reads halo catalogs generated with Pinocchio and applies the Mass to Luminosity approach developed by Balaguera-Antolinez (2012) to illuminate dark matter halos with X-ray luminosity. The script reads input parameters from a configuration file and utilizes scientific libraries to handle large datasets efficiently.

Features

• Reads and processes halo data from HDF5 files.
• Computes and analyzes halo properties.
• Supports parameterized configuration via an external .ini file.
• Leverages optimized scientific libraries for efficient computations.

Dependencies

To run illuminating_halos.py, you need the following Python libraries:

• numpy (for numerical computations)
• h5py (for handling HDF5 files)
• astropy (for astrophysical calculations)

Ensure you have them installed by running:

pip install numpy h5py astropy

Installation

Clone the repository and navigate to the directory:

git clone https://github.com/your-repo/illuminating_halos.git
cd illuminating_halos

Usage

To run the script, provide a configuration file as input:

python illuminating_halos.py parameters.ini

Configuration File (parameters.ini)

The script reads its configuration parameters from the parameters.ini file. Ensure that this file contains the required settings in the correct format.

A sample parameters.ini file is shown below:

[General]
BaseName          = L1500_N750_sobol_ndim2_
WritingPath       = /home/path/to/TestXLF/L1500_N750_sobol_ndim2
is_pinocchio_box  = True
output_type       = .h5
z                 = 0.0000

[SimulationSettings]
Npart_minimum     = 40
L_Limit           = 0.003

Parameters Description:

• BaseName: The base name used for simulations or data sets.
• WritingPath: The directory where the output files will be stored.
• is_pinocchio_box: A boolean flag to indicate whether to use the Pinocchio box or lightcone (set as True or False).
• output_type: Specifies the type of the output file (e.g., .h5).
• z: The redshift value (can be adjusted according to the needs of the simulation).
• Npart_minimum: The minimum number of particles for the cluster to be illuminated.
• L_Limit: A parameter defining the luminosity limit for the survey (e.g., 0.003 10^44 erg/s/h2 for REFLEX-II).

Ensure that these parameters are correctly set in your parameters.ini file before running the script.

Example

Here’s an example of running the script:

python illuminating_halos.py config.ini

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues or pull requests to improve the script.

Contact

For questions or feedback, contact calabrese@oavda.it or open an issue on GitHub.