In the following, a quick tutorial for SIXTE is displayed to get you started. We still recommend to take a look into the tutorial section in the SIXTE manual (link to the most recent version at the bottom of this page) for a way more detailed tutorial with a lot of explanations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be able to use the tools, you have to set the environment variables To follow along with this tutorial, you will need to have XSPEC installed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, we are going to test if SIMPUT and SIXTE are running in general. Please enter to your terminal the following commands:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both give you a list with possible parameters to set for For Before starting an observation simulation, the sources need to be described in the SIMPUT<\/a> format. The SIXTE software package contains tools to obtain such a file from several input files such as an XSPEC- or ISIS-parameter file for a spectrum, as well as for example an ASCII description of a lightcurve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a simple non-variable source with an absorbed power law spectrum, we are going to create a simple .xcm file with XSPEC<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n With this, we can now build our SIMPUT file, by writing a short shell script:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make this shell script executable (run: We are using the tool Again, make this shell script executable and execute it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To take a look at our source, we can use the tool Even if a point source is not that interesting to look at, this can be used in the same way for much more complex sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More interesting for a single point source is the spectral shape, so using the tool The current version of the SIXTE simulator manual is available for download below. It includes a general description of SIXTE and the implementation of various X-Ray detectors such as the WFI, X-IFU, eROSITA and more. In addition, tutorials for Athena WFI and X-IFU simulations are included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n download: <\/strong>simulator_manual.pdf<\/a> (v1.3.17, 2023-02-16)<\/p>\n\n\n\n supplementary files for the X-IFU tutorial (30MB!): X-IFU_clusters_tutorial.tgz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n$SIMPUT<\/code> and $SIXTE<\/code> to the respective installation directories and source the sixte-install.csh\/sh<\/code> script, like shown in the installation tab<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nplist simputfile\nplist sixtesim<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nsimputfile<\/code> and sixtesim<\/code> respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\nsimputfile<\/code> this should look like the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\nParameters for \/Your\/directory\/pfiles\/simputfile.par\n Simput = some_fits_file.fits output SIMPUT catalog file\n (Src_ID = 1) source ID\n (Src_Name = none) source name\n (RA = 0.0) right ascension (deg)\n (Dec = 0.0) declination (deg)\n (srcFlux = 0.0) source flux (erg\/s\/cm^2)\n (Elow = 0.1) lower bound of the generated spectrum (keV)\n (Eup = 100.0) upper bound of the generated spectrum (keV)\n (Estep = 0.0) deprecated (resolution of the spectrum (keV) )\n (Nbins = 1000) number of energy bins created from Elow to Eup\n (logEgrid = no) use a logarithmic energy grid (from Elow to Eup with Nbins)\n (plPhoIndex = 2.0) power law index\n (plFlux = 0.0) power law flux (erg\/s\/cm^2)\n (bbkT = 1.0) black body temperature (keV)\n (bbFlux = 0.0) black body flux (erg\/s\/cm^2)\n (flSigma = 1.0e-3) Fe line sigma (keV)\n . .\n . .\n . .\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nSIMPUT Source creation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
computer:~\/> xspec\n\n\t\tXSPEC version: 12.12.0\n\tBuild Date\/Time: Mon Dec 20 11:07:27 2021\n\nXSPEC12>model phabs*pegpwrlw\n\nInput parameter value, delta, min, bot, top, and max values for ...\n 1 0.001( 0.01) 0 0 100000 1e+06\n1:phabs:nH>0.2\n 1 0.01( 0.01) -3 -2 9 10\n2:pegpwrlw:PhoIndex>2.05\n 2 -0.01( 0.02) -100 -100 1e+10 1e+10\n3:pegpwrlw:eMin>2\n 10 -0.01( 0.1) -100 -100 1e+10 1e+10\n4:pegpwrlw:eMax>10\n 1 0.01( 0.01) 0 0 1e+20 1e+24\n5:pegpwrlw:norm>21.6\n\n========================================================================\nModel phabs<1>*pegpwrlw<2> Source No.: 1 Active\/Off\nModel Model Component Parameter Unit Value\n par comp\n 1 1 phabs nH 10^22 0.200000 +\/- 0.0 \n 2 2 pegpwrlw PhoIndex 2.05000 +\/- 0.0 \n 3 2 pegpwrlw eMin keV 2.00000 frozen\n 4 2 pegpwrlw eMax keV 10.0000 frozen\n 5 2 pegpwrlw norm 21.6000 +\/- 0.0 \n________________________________________________________________________\n\nXSPEC12>flux 2 10\n Model Flux 0.0032845 photons (2.1157e-11 ergs\/cm^2\/s) range (2.0000 - 10.000 keV)\nXSPEC12>\nXSPEC12>save model mcrab.xcm\nXSPEC12>quit<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n#!\/bin\/bash\n\nbase=mcrab\n$SIXTE\/bin\/simputfile Simput=${base}.fits \\\n Src_Name=first \\\n RA=0.0 \\\n Dec=0.0 \\\n srcFlux=2.137e-11 \\\n Elow=0.1 \\\n Eup=15 \\\n NBins=1000 \\\n logEgrid=yes \\\n Emin=2 \\\n Emax=10 \\\n XSPECFile=${base}.xcm<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nchmod a+x .\/mcrab.bash<\/code>) and execute it.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRunning the simulation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
sixtesim<\/code> to run our sample simulation. Therefore, we write another shell script:<\/p>\n\n\n\n#!\/bin\/bash\n\nbase=mcrab\n\nxmldir=$SIXTE\/share\/sixte\/instruments\/athena-wfi\/wfi_wo_filter\nxml=${xmldir}\/ld_wfi_ff_large.xml\n\n$SIXTE\/bin\/sixtesim \\\n XMLFile=${xml} \\\n RA=0.000 Dec=0.000 \\\n Prefix=sim_ \\\n Simput=${base}.fits \\\n EvtFile=evt_${base}.fits \\\n Exposure=1000<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nAnalysing the simulation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Create an image<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
imgev<\/code>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n$SIXTE\/bin\/imgev \\\n EvtFile=sim_evt_mcrab.fits \\\n Image=img_mcrab.fits \\\n CoordinateSystem=0 Projection=TAN \\\n NAXIS1=512 NAXIS2=512 CUNIT1=deg CUNIT2=deg \\\n CRVAL1=0.0 CRVAL2=0.0 CRPIX1=256.5 CRPIX2=256.5 \\\n CDELT1=-6.207043e-04 CDELT2=6.207043e-04 \\\n history=true clobber=yes<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nSpectral shape<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
makespec<\/code> we can produce an X-ray spectrum:<\/p>\n\n\n\n$SIXTE\/bin\/makespec \\\n EvtFile=sim_evt_mcrab.fits \\\n Spectrum=spec_mcrab.pha \\\n EventFilter=\"(RA>359.95 || RA<0.05) && Dec>-0.05 && Dec<+0.05\" \\\n RSPPath=${xmldir} clobber=yes<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nSIXTE Simulator Manual<\/h3>\n\n\n\n