PsrPopPy

(For full documentation, see http://samb8s.github.com/PsrPopPy/ or manual.pdf)

Python implementation of PSRPOP (which was written by D Lorimer). Several of the old models from that (e.g. NE2001) are still included in their native fortran, since re-writing those is beyond the scope of this work. Currently, only a rudimentary makefile is included. This is something that needs work from a willing volunteer!

The main external requirements are matplotlib and wxPython, which are used for the visualization stuff. It has a very useful API for making simple GUIs, as well as making beautiful plots. I've had difficulty compiliing wxPython from scratch on more recent versions of Mac OS X, but it should be straightforward to install via macports or similar.

Dev Notes

I've just added scintillation effects to dosurvey! They can be switched on by adding the flag --scint, but are off by default. The code uses equations from Lorimer & Kramer and the NE2001 code to calculate modulation indices for pulsars in the population. The S/N of each pulsar is then scaled up or down using the modulation index.

Compiling

I've just incorporated a real makefile for the first time - be sure to edit makefile.linux or makefile.darwin as appropriate to point to the correct location of your gfortran compiler. After that, it should be as simple as typing make.

If this fails, try using the scripts. Inside the lib/fortran directory, edit make_mac.csh or make_linux.csh (as appropriate) -- change the variable `gf' to point to your local gfortran compiler, then run the script. Fingers crossed, it should all work.

Note mac users should be sure to use a suitable version of gfortran - available from http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/GFortranBinaries

Compiling using enscons

An experimental compiling option is available to install everything as a python package, called psrpoppy, using enscons (available on PyPi via pip install enscons). To compile and install the package system-wide just use:

sudo python setup.py install

After this you can import the python module with:

import psrpoppy

or, following this example, you could do:

from psrpoppy import populate

pop = populate.generate(1038, 
                        surveyList=['PMSURV'],
                        radialDistType='lfl06',
                        siDistPars=[-1.41, 0.96], # non-standard SI distribution
                        duty_percent=6.,
                        electronModel='lmt85',
                        nostdout=True # switches off output to stdout
                       )

Usage

If not installing the package via enscons I'd recommend adding the psrpoppy directory to your PYTHONPATH and adding the bin directory to your PATH. This should then leave you set up to run the code from wherever you like.

A brief description of the "executables" follows.

populate

Create a population mode using user-defined parameters using the snapshot method

evolve

Create a populate model using the Ridley & Lorimer evolution method

dosurvey

Run a population model through a survey. Pre-defined surveys are given, but a user may also create their own.

wxView

More detailed population model viewer. Make histograms, scatter plots, etc. All based off the wx backend for matplotlib.

wxHist

Make more intricate histograms, including histograms of multiple population models.