Sed

A Spectral Energy Distribution, or SED, describes the energy distribution of an emitting body as a function of frequency / wavelength. In synthesizer, generated spectra are stored in Sed objects.

There are a number of different ways to generate spectra in synthesizer, but in every case the resulting SED is always stored in an Sed object. An Sed object in synthesizer is generally agnostic of where the input spectra comes from; they can therefore be inititalised provided any arbitrary frequency / wavelength and the corresponding flux / luminosity density. An Sed object has the ability to contain multiple spectra (multiple galaxies or particles).

The Sed class contains a number of methods for calculating derived properties, such as broadband luminosities / fluxes (within wavelength windows or on filters) and spectral indices (e.g. balmer break, UV-continuum slope), and for modifying the spectra themselves, for example by applying an attenuation curve due to dust.

In the following example we introduce the Sed class, and some simple functionality.

• The Sed object