Stingray: Open-source spectral-timing software

Presented at the 16th AAS High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) meeting in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Abstract: New ideas about how to analyze X-ray astronomy data have initiated the “spectral-timing revolution,” leading to a surge in developments of analysis techniques. Many individual tools and libraries exist, and some are even publicly available, but what has been lacking is a coherent set for a complete analysis. Stingray is a new community-developed, open-source software package in Python for spectral-timing analysis of astrophysical data. This software package merges existing efforts for a timing package in Python and provides the basis for developing spectral-timing analysis tools, while following the Astropy guidelines for modern open-source scientific programming. Stingray has a scripting interface, an affiliated graphical user interface, and a well-documented application programming interface (API) for power-users. The ultimate goal is to provide the community with a package that eases the learning curve for state-of-the-art spectral-timing techniques, with a correct statistical framework, to make maximal use of new data from NICER and potentially STROBE-X. Stingray is pip-installable via the Python Package Index, and we warmly welcome community involvement on our GitHub code repository. For more information, see the Stingray website: http://stingraysoftware.github.io/

Transcript

1. Stingray:
   Open-source spectral-
   timing software
   Abigail Stevens (U. Amsterdam), Matteo Bachetti (INAF-Cagliari),
   Paul Balm (Timelab), Daniela Huppenkothen (NYU-CDS),
   Simone Migliari (ESAC, Timelab)
   http://stingraysoftware.github.io/
   A.L.Stevens@uva.nl
   @abigailStev
   

   View Slide

2. Why make Stingray?
   A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev Image: XKCD
   

   View Slide

3. Why make Stingray?
   — Not much public X-ray timing code
   Legacy code, “black box”
   — No public X-ray spectral-timing code
   Public code = anyone can read source code, code is
   well-documented
   A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
   

   View Slide

4. Why open-source?
   A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
   — Reproducibility
   — Transparency
   — Reusability
   — Transfer to other fields?
   Image: GitHub
   

   View Slide

5. Why Python?
   Slide adapted from J. VanderPlas
   SciPy
   PyMC
   A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
   

   View Slide

6. Stingray + HENDRICS + DAVE
   Python
   application
   programming
   interface
   Shell script
   interface Graphical
   user interface
   A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
   + tutorials in Jupyter notebooks
   

   View Slide

7. —  Library of time series analysis methods
   —  Power spectra, cross spectra, bispectra
   —  Lag-frequency & lag-energy spectra
   —  Rms & covariance spectra
   —  Coherence, cross-correlation
   —  Handles GTIs, pulsar & QPO searches
   —  Simulator, modeling
   Leads: D. Huppenkothen, M. Bachetti, A.L. Stevens
   A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev Image adapted from Hyperbole and a Half
   Stingray + HENDRICS + DAVE
   

   View Slide

8. A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
   Stingray + HENDRICS + DAVE
   

   View Slide

9. A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
   Stingray + HENDRICS + DAVE
   

   View Slide

10. A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
    Stingray + HENDRICS + DAVE
    Phase-resolved
    spectroscopy for
    quasi-periodic
    oscillations
    Handling instrument
    response matrices
    Coming
    soon!
    Lead: D. Huppenkothen
    Lead: A. Stevens
    RXTE
    

    View Slide

11. Stingray + HENDRICS + DAVE
    A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
    Lead: M. Bachetti
    

    View Slide

12. Stingray + HENDRICS + DAVE
    Data
    Analysis
    for
    Variable
    Events
    A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
    Leads:
    P. Balm,
    S. Migliari
    Image from M. Bachetti
    

    View Slide

13. Stingray + HENDRICS + DAVE
    Data
    Analysis
    for
    Variable
    Events
    A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
    Leads:
    P. Balm,
    S. Migliari
    Image from M. Bachetti
    

    View Slide

14. A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
    Order
    changes
    depending
    on updates
    github.com/
    StingraySoftware
    

    View Slide

15. Get involved!
    A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
    

    View Slide

16. Get involved!
    A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
    Please try it out and
    give us feedback!
    What functionality
    do you want to see?
    You can also send
    us an email or Slack
    message.
    

    View Slide

17. The faces behind the code
    Daniela Matteo Abigail Paul
    Simone Himanshu Usman
    Ricardo
    Evandro Haroon Omar
    Danish
    = Google Summer of Code
    A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
    

    View Slide

18. Summary
    —  X-ray spectral-timing is joining the ecosystem of
    open-source Python software!
    —  ‘pip install stingray’ or fork it on GitHub
    —  Code: github.com/StingraySoftware
    —  Tutorials: github.com/StingraySoftware/notebooks
    —  Software is vital for the future of astronomy
    A.L. Stevens Ÿ U. Amsterdam Ÿ @abigailStev
    

    View Slide