Simulation and analysis framework for the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer
This is the public repository for the package described at SoftwareX, Volume 19, July 2022, 101194
Please refer to the documentation and, should you encounter any problem, feel free to use our issue tracker.
ixpeobssim is a simulation and analysis framework specifically developed for the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). Given a source model and the response functions of the telescopes, it is designed to produce realistic simulated observations, in the form of event lists in FITS format, containing a strict superset of the information included in the publicly released IXPE data products. The core simulation capabilities are complemented by a full suite of post-processing applications which support the spatial, spectral, and temporal models needed for analysis of typical polarized X-ray sources, allowing for the implementation of complex, polarization-aware analysis pipelines, and facilitating the interoperation with the standard visualization and analysis tools traditionally in use by the X-ray community.
Although much of the framework is specific to IXPE, the modular nature of the underlying implementation makes it potentially straightforward to adapt it to different missions with polarization capabilities.
In a nutshell, you should be able to install ixpeobssim via pip
pip install ixpeobssim
Refer to the installation instructions for more in-depth information.
The ixpeobssim documentation is hosted on readthedocs, the most useful pointers being:
For convenience, a static version of the latest documentation in pdf format is available at this link.