[Last Change: 15 Feb 2012 (rev 4)]

Simple Source Spectrum Definitions

A simple spectrum definition takes one of two forms:

1. A single floating point number, indicating a monochromatic source with the given energy in keV with a flux of 1.0 photon/s/cm²:

   spectrum = 1.49

2. A list of one or more specifications encoded as a Lua table:

   spectrum = { spec1, spec2, ... }

The available specifications are:

Monochromatic, default flux of 1.0 photon/s/cm²

The specification takes the form of a number, which is the energy in keV. The flux is set at 1.0 photon/s/cm².

For example,

spectrum = { 1.49 }

Monochromatic, specific flux

A list containing two elements, the first the energy in keV and the second the flux in in photon/s/cm².

For example,

spectrum = { { 1.49, 0.2 } }

Picket Fence

The spectrum is composed of δ-functions at specified energies read from a file in RDB format.The specification is a table with the following entries:

name	type	description	default
file	string	name of file
energy	string	name of column containing energy in keV	"energy"
flux	string	name of column containing flux in photons/s/cm2	"flux"
type	string	must be set to "picket"

For example,

spectrum = { { file = "picket.rdb", type = "picket" } }

Flat

The spectrum is flat across an energy range. The specification is a table with the following entries:

name	type	description	default
emin	number	minimum energy in range, inclusive
emax	number	maximum energy in range, exclusive
flux	number	flux in photons/s/cm2	1.0
type	string	must be set to "flat"

For example,

spectrum = { { emin = 0.2, emax = 10.0, type = "flat" } }

File

The spectrum is read from a file containing a binned spectrum. The specification is a table with the following entries:

name	type	description	default
file	string	name of file
format	string	format of file. must be "rdb"
emin	string	name of column containing minimum bin energy in keV, inclusive	"emin"
emax	string	name of column containing maximum bin energy in keV, exclusive	"emax"
flux	string	name of column containing flux	"flux"
units	string	units of flux. one of: "ergs/s/cm2/kev", "kev/s/cm2/kev", or "photons/s/cm2"
scale	number	factor by which to scale the spectrum	1.0

For example,

spectrum = { { file = "spectrum.rdb", units = "ergs/s/cm2/kev", scale = 0.5, format = "rdb" } }

Presently, only RDB format files are accepted.