POWDERDAY: Dust Radiative Transfer for Galaxy Simulations

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • Desika Narayanan
  • Matthew J. Turk
  • Thomas Robitaille
  • Ashley J. Kelly
  • B. Connor McClellan
  • Ray S. Sharma
  • Prerak Garg
  • Matthew Abruzzo
  • Ena Choi
  • Charlie Conroy
  • Benjamin D. Johnson
  • Benjamin Kimock
  • Qi Li
  • Christopher C. Lovell
  • Sidney Lower
  • George C. Privon
  • Jonathan Roberts
  • Snigdaa Sethuram
  • Gregory F. Snyder
  • Robert Thompson
  • And 1 others
  • John H. Wise

We present powderday (available at ), a flexible, fast, open-source dust radiative transfer package designed to interface with both idealized and cosmological galaxy formation simulations. powderday builds on fsps stellar population synthesis models, and hyperion dust radiative transfer, and employs yt to interface between different software packages. We include our stellar population synthesis modeling on the fly, allowing significant flexibility in the assumed stellar physics and nebular line emission. The dust content follows either simple observationally motivated prescriptions (i.e., constant dust-to-metals ratios, or dust-to-gas ratios that vary with metallicity), direct modeling from galaxy formation simulations that include dust physics, as well as a novel approach that includes the dust content via learning-based algorithms from the simba cosmological galaxy formation simulation. Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can additionally be included via a range of prescriptions. The output of these models are broadband (912 A-1 mm) spectral energy distributions (SEDs), as well as filter-convolved monochromatic images. powderday is designed to eliminate last-mile efforts by researchers that employ different hydrodynamic galaxy formation models and seamlessly interfaces with gizmo, arepo, gasoline, changa, and enzo. We demonstrate the capabilities of the code via three applications: a model for the star formation rate-infrared luminosity relation in galaxies (including the impact of AGNs), the impact of circumstellar dust around AGB stars on the mid-infrared emission from galaxy SEDs, and the impact of galaxy inclination angle on dust attenuation laws.

Original languageEnglish
Article number12
JournalAstrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Volume252
Issue number1
Number of pages18
ISSN0067-0049
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Jan 2021

    Research areas

  • Galaxy evolution, Galaxy luminosities, Astronomy software, Open source software, Radiative transfer simulations, SPECTRAL ENERGY-DISTRIBUTIONS, STAR-FORMING GALAXIES, GRAIN-SIZE DISTRIBUTION, INITIAL MASS FUNCTION, CO-H2 CONVERSION FACTOR, ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI, POPULATION SYNTHESIS, SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES, PHYSICAL-PROPERTIES, INFRARED-EMISSION

ID: 256626375