TY - JOUR
T1 - Despotic - a new software library to derive the energetics and spectra of optically thick interstellar clouds
AU - Krumholz, Mark R.
PY - 2013/11
Y1 - 2013/11
N2 - I describe DESPOTIC, a code to Derive the Energetics and SPectra of Optically Thick Interstellar Clouds. DESPOTIC represents such clouds using a one-zone model, and can calculate line luminosities, line cooling rates, and in restricted cases line profiles using an escape probability formalism. It also includes approximate treatments of the dominant heating, cooling and chemical processes for the cold interstellar medium, including cosmic ray and X-ray heating, grain photoelectric heating, heating of the dust by infrared and ultraviolet radiation, thermal cooling of the dust, collisional energy exchange between dust and gas, and a simple network for carbon chemistry. Based on these heating, cooling and chemical rates, DESPOTIC can calculate clouds' equilibrium gas and dust temperatures, equilibrium carbon chemical state and time-dependent thermal and chemical evolution. The software is intended to allow rapid and interactive calculation of clouds' characteristic temperatures, identification of their dominant heating and cooling mechanisms and prediction of their observable spectra across a wide range of interstellar environments. DESPOTIC is implemented as a PYTHON package, and is released under the GNU General Public License.
AB - I describe DESPOTIC, a code to Derive the Energetics and SPectra of Optically Thick Interstellar Clouds. DESPOTIC represents such clouds using a one-zone model, and can calculate line luminosities, line cooling rates, and in restricted cases line profiles using an escape probability formalism. It also includes approximate treatments of the dominant heating, cooling and chemical processes for the cold interstellar medium, including cosmic ray and X-ray heating, grain photoelectric heating, heating of the dust by infrared and ultraviolet radiation, thermal cooling of the dust, collisional energy exchange between dust and gas, and a simple network for carbon chemistry. Based on these heating, cooling and chemical rates, DESPOTIC can calculate clouds' equilibrium gas and dust temperatures, equilibrium carbon chemical state and time-dependent thermal and chemical evolution. The software is intended to allow rapid and interactive calculation of clouds' characteristic temperatures, identification of their dominant heating and cooling mechanisms and prediction of their observable spectra across a wide range of interstellar environments. DESPOTIC is implemented as a PYTHON package, and is released under the GNU General Public License.
KW - ISM:Clouds
KW - ISM:Molecules
KW - Line:Profiles
KW - galaxies:ISM
KW - methods:Numerical
KW - radiative transfer
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84890958276&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stt2000
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stt2000
M3 - Article
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 437
SP - 1662
EP - 1680
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 2
ER -