Utils (skypy.utils)

Decorators

SkyPy provides a number of convenient decorators to perform common tasks:

• Broadcast arguments to same shape

• Evaluate dependent arguments

Broadcast arguments to same shape

The broadcast_arguments decorator takes a list of argument names that will be broadcast to a common shape (using numpy.broadcast_arrays) before being passed to the function.

import numpy as np

from skypy.utils import broadcast_arguments

@broadcast_arguments('a', 'b')
def a_function_of_arrays(a, b):
    print(np.block([a, b]))

a = [[1, 2, 3]]      # row vector
b = [[4], [5], [6]]  # column vector

a_function_of_arrays(a, b)
# output: [[1 2 3 4 4 4]
#          [1 2 3 5 5 5]
#          [1 2 3 6 6 6]]

Since broadcast_arguments requires the final shapes of its arguments, it should be placed below decorators which modify arguments.

Evaluate dependent arguments

Sometimes, the value of one argument (the dependent argument) will be a function other arguments (the independent arguments). Consider the following example to plot a parametric surface:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D

def plot(x, y, z):
    '''plot the surface given by `z = f(x, y)`'''
    fig = plt.figure()
    ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')
    ax.plot_surface(x, y, z)
    plt.show()

def f(x, y):
    '''the surface function `z = f(x, y)`'''
    return np.sin(np.hypot(x, y))

# x and y over a [-5, 5]x[-5, 5] grid
x, y = np.mgrid[-5.0:5.0:0.1, -5.0:5.0:0.1]

# compute surface
z = f(x, y)

# plot surface
plot(x, y, z)

The function plot(x, y, z) takes three coordinates, where z is generated by a function f(x, y). In this situation, it is often more convenient to pass the function f directly instead of the z coordinate, which would require the receiving function to distinguish whether it is given values or a function. The dependent_argument decorator handles this situation transparently by taking the name of one dependent argument and the names of one or more independent arguments, and computing values if a function is provided for the dependent argument:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D

from skypy.utils import dependent_argument

@dependent_argument('z', 'x', 'y')
def plot(x, y, z):
    '''plot the surface given by `z = f(x, y)`'''
    fig = plt.figure()
    ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')
    ax.plot_surface(x, y, z)
    plt.show()

def f(x, y):
    '''the surface function `z = f(x, y)`'''
    return np.sin(np.hypot(x, y))

# x and y over a [-5, 5]x[-5, 5] grid
x, y = np.mgrid[-5.0:5.0:0.1, -5.0:5.0:0.1]

# plot surface
plot(x, y, f)

Since dependent_argument requires the values of all independent arguments, it should be placed below decorators which modify any of the independent arguments.

Photometry (skypy.utils.photometry)

This module contains methods that model spectral energy distributions and calculate photometric properties.

SkyPy uses the speclite package for photometric calculations. Some of the following functions take the names of photometric filters as an input parameter. Users can choose from the available Speclite Filters following the naming syntax described in speclite.filters.load_filters, or create their own named speclite.filters.FilterResponse.

absolute_magnitude_from_luminosity	Converts luminosities to absolute magnitudes.
luminosity_from_absolute_magnitude	Converts absolute magnitudes to luminosities.
luminosity_in_band	Bandpass magnitude of reference luminosities.
mag_ab	Compute AB magnitudes from spectra and filters.
SpectrumTemplates	Base class for composite galaxy spectra from a set of basis templates

Random sampling (skypy.utils.random)

Random utility module.

This module provides methods to draw from random distributions.

Utility Functions

schechter	Sample from the Schechter function.
triaxial_axis_ratio	axis ratio of a randomly projected triaxial ellipsoid

Special functions (skypy.utils.special)

Special functions.

This module computes useful special functions.

gammaincc

Regularized upper incomplete gamma function.

Reference/API

skypy.utils Package

This module contains utility functions.

Functions

broadcast_arguments(*broadcast_args)	Decorator that broadcasts arguments.
dependent_argument(dependent_arg, ...)	Decorator to evaluate a dependent argument.

skypy.utils.photometry Module

Photometry module.

Functions

absolute_magnitude_from_luminosity(luminosity)	Converts luminosities to absolute magnitudes.
luminosity_from_absolute_magnitude(...[, ...])	Converts absolute magnitudes to luminosities.
mag_ab(wavelength, spectrum, filters, *[, ...])	Compute AB magnitudes from spectra and filters.

Classes

SpectrumTemplates()

Base class for composite galaxy spectra from a set of basis templates

Class Inheritance Diagram