pymcfost

pymcfost is a python interface to the 3D radiative transfer code mcfost. The goal is to provide a simple and light interface to explore and plot a single (or a few) model(s).

pymcfost offers (or will offer) the following functionalities:

• set up continuum and line models,
• read a single model or library of models,
• plot basic quantities, e.g. density structures, temperature maps on the various grids available in mcfost,
• plot observables : SEDs, image (with convolution), polarisation maps and vectors, visibilities, channels maps (with spatial and spectral convolution), moment maps.
• convert units, e.g. W.m-2 to Jy or brightness temperature
• provides an interface to the ALMA CASA simulator
• provides a fast and simplfied version of the ALMA simulator (spatial convolution with Gaussian, spectral convolution and noise), ie ignoring uv sampling,
• consistent interface with the casa_cube python package to compare observations with models
• read and plot dust models, including Mie, DHS and aggregates dust properties calculations
• (TBD) direct interface to the ML chemical predictions

Installation:

git clone https://github.com/cpinte/pymcfost.git
cd pymcfost
python3 setup.py install

If you don't have the sudo rights, use python3 setup.py install --user.

To install in developer mode: (i.e. using symlinks to point directly at this directory, so that code changes here are immediately available without needing to repeat the above step):

 python3 setup.py develop

History:

In case you are curious, pymcfost was born as an attempt to port in python the functions that were available in the yorick-mcfost code, which is still available here: https://github.com/cpinte/yomcfost. The fitting routines of the yorick interface are yet to be ported into pymcfost. An alternative python distribution is available at https://github.com/swolff9/mcfost-python . It is more tailored towards handling large grid of models and model fitting.

Main structural differences with mcfost-python so far:

• python >= 3.6 vs python 2.x
• only parameter file >= 3.0
• handles parameter files with mutiple zones, dust population, molecules, stars, etc. Parameter files are stored in objects rather than dicts, allowing more flexibility.
• does not and will not handle observational data, only models