Lightning

Lightning is a spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting code originally designed to rapidly fit non-parametric star formation history (SFH) models to photometric galaxy data.

Now, Lightning employs a variety of methods, including an adaptive Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo, affine-invariant Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo, and Levenberg-Marquardt gradient decent (MPFIT) algorithms to fit X-ray to far-infrared (FIR) SEDs. The models fit to the SEDs can have contributions from stellar populations, ISM dust emission, and AGN.

Documentation

• Installation
• Getting Started
• Results and Post-Processing
• Examples
• Filter Profiles
• Frequently Asked Questions
• API Reference

Attribution

If you make use of Lightning, please cite the following articles:

@MISC{2017ascl.soft11009E,
    author = {{Eufrasio}, Rafael T.},
    title = "{Lightning: SED Fitting Package}",
    keywords = {Software},
    year = 2017,
    month = nov,
    eid = {ascl:1711.009},
    pages = {ascl:1711.009},
    archivePrefix = {ascl},
    eprint = {1711.009},
    adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017ascl.soft11009E},
    adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

@ARTICLE{2017ApJ...851...10E,
    author = {{Eufrasio}, R.~T. and {Lehmer}, B.~D. and {Zezas}, A. and {Dwek}, E. and {Arendt}, R.~G. and {Basu-Zych}, A. and {Wiklind}, T. and {Yukita}, M. and {Fragos}, T. and {Hornschemeier}, A.~E. and {Markwardt}, L. and {Ptak}, A. and {Tzanavaris}, P.},
    title = "{On the Spatially Resolved Star Formation History in M51. I. Hybrid UV+IR Star Formation Laws and IR Emission from Dust Heated by Old Stars}",
    journal = {\apj},
    keywords = {galaxies: individual: NGC 5194, NGC 5195, galaxies: interactions, galaxies: spiral, galaxies: star formation, galaxies: stellar content, Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics},
    year = 2017,
    month = dec,
    volume = {851},
    number = {1},
    eid = {10},
    pages = {10},
    doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aa9569},
    archivePrefix = {arXiv},
    eprint = {1710.09401},
    primaryClass = {astro-ph.GA},
    adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017ApJ...851...10E},
    adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

An incomplete list of other papers using Lightning are:

• Lehmer et al. (2017)

• Lehmer et al. (2020)

• Doore et al. (2021)

• Monson et al. (2021)

• Motiño Flores et al. (2021)

• Abdeen et al. (2022)

• Doore et al. (2022)

• Gilbertson et al. (2022)

• Lehmer et al. (2022)

License

Lightning is available under the terms of the MIT license.