MILESpy documentation

Welcome to the documentation for MILESpy - a python interface to the MILES SSP models and stellar library. This package aims to provide users an easy interface to access single stellar population (SSP) models, navigate the stellar library or synthesize the spectrum of a given star formation history (SFH), among other things. MILESpy is fully integrated and builds upon previously existing tools, namely astropy and specutils.

We recommend you get started with the MILESpy Tutorials to understand the possibilities of the package. Then, navigate to the Installation instructions to start using the code. Lastly, during your development process, the MILESpy API reference documentation may be the best resource.

Attention

Note that MILESpy is shipped with a simple interpolating routine for stellar spectra based on a Voronoi tesselation of the parameter space. We simply weight by the distance to the vertices of the enclosing cell. This is NOT the classical interpolator [Vazdekis et al., 2003] used in Vazdekis et al. [2010] to generate SSP spectra from the MILES stellar library.

Available stellar libraries

Stellar library	Reference
MILES	Sánchez-Blázquez et al. [2006]
EMILES	Koleva and Vazdekis [2012]
CaT	Cenarro et al. [2001]
sMILES	Knowles et al. [2021]

Available SSP models

SSP models	Wavelength coverage	Abundance pattern	IMF	Isochrones	Reference
MILES (base models)	3400 - 7300 Å	Solar neighborhood	Chabrier Kroupa universal Kroupa revised unimodal bimodal	Padova00 BaSTI	Vazdekis et al. [2010]
MILES (α-variable models)	3400 - 7300 Å	[α/Fe]= 0.0; +0.4	Chabrier Kroupa universal Kroupa revised unimodal bimodal	BaSTI	Vazdekis et al. [2015]
EMILES	1680 - 50000 Å	Solar neighborhood	Chabrier Kroupa universal Kroupa revised unimodal bimodal	Padova00 BaSTI	Vazdekis et al. [2016]
CaT	8348 - 8950 Å	Solar neighborhood	Kroupa universal Kroupa revised unimodal bimodal	Padova00	Vazdekis et al. [2003]

Please refer to the official MILES website for more details. Also check the relevant publications for each of the models in Relevant papers.

• Installation
• Configuration
• Units handling
• Tutorials & examples
  • SSP spectra manitulation
  • SFH definition
  • Navigate the stellar library
  • Generate color grid prediction
  • Spectral cubes and magnitudes from simulated data
• API Reference
  • Stellar spectra library
  • SSP models
  • SFH analysis
  • Spectra manipulation
  • Other tools
• Contributing
• Relevant publications

[1]

A. J. Cenarro, N. Cardiel, J. Gorgas, R. F. Peletier, A. Vazdekis, and F. Prada. Empirical calibration of the near-infrared Ca ii triplet - I. The stellar library and index definition. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 326:959–980, September 2001. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04688.x.

[2]

Adam T Knowles, A E Sansom, C Allende Prieto, and A Vazdekis. sMILES: a library of semi-empirical MILES stellar spectra with variable [ \emph α /Fe] abundances. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 504(2):2286–2311, April 2021. doi:10.1093/mnras/stab1001.

[3]

M. Koleva and A. Vazdekis. Stellar population models in the UV. I. Characterisation of the New Generation Stellar Library. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 538:A143, February 2012. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201118065.

[4] (1,2)

A. Vazdekis, A. J. Cenarro, J. Gorgas, N. Cardiel, and R. F. Peletier. Empirical calibration of the near-infrared CaII triplet - IV. The stellar population synthesis models. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 340:1317–1345, April 2003. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06413.x.

[5]

A. Vazdekis, P. Coelho, S. Cassisi, E. Ricciardelli, J. Falcón-Barroso, P. Sánchez-Blázquez, F. La Barbera, M. A. Beasley, and A. Pietrinferni. Evolutionary stellar population synthesis with MILES - II. Scaled-solar and α-enhanced models. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 449:1177–1214, May 2015. doi:10.1093/mnras/stv151.

[6]

A. Vazdekis, M. Koleva, E. Ricciardelli, B. Röck, and J. Falcón-Barroso. UV-extended E-MILES stellar population models: young components in massive early-type galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 463:3409–3436, December 2016. doi:10.1093/mnras/stw2231.

[7] (1,2)

A. Vazdekis, P. Sánchez-Blázquez, J. Falcón-Barroso, A. J. Cenarro, M. A. Beasley, N. Cardiel, J. Gorgas, and R. F. Peletier. Evolutionary stellar population synthesis with MILES - I. The base models and a new line index system. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 404:1639–1671, June 2010. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16407.x.

[8]

P. Sánchez-Blázquez, R. F. Peletier, J. Jiménez-Vicente, N. Cardiel, A. J. Cenarro, J. Falcón-Barroso, J. Gorgas, S. Selam, and A. Vazdekis. Medium-resolution Isaac Newton Telescope library of empirical spectra. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 371:703–718, September 2006. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10699.x.