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COCOA Code for Creating Mock Observations of Star Cluster Models

Askar, Abbas LU orcid ; Giersz, Mirek ; Pych, Wojciech and Dalessandro, Emanuele (2018) In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Abstract
We introduce and present results from the cocoa (Cluster simulatiOn Comparison with ObservAtions) code that has been developed to create idealized mock photometric observations using results from numerical simulations of star cluster evolution. cocoa is able to present the output of realistic numerical simulations of star clusters carried out using Monte Carlo or N-body codes in a way that is useful for direct comparison with photometric observations. In this paper, we describe the cocoa code and demonstrate its different applications by utilizing globular cluster (GC) models simulated with the mocca (MOnte Carlo Cluster simulAtor) code. cocoa is used to synthetically observe these different GC models with optical telescopes, perform point... (More)
We introduce and present results from the cocoa (Cluster simulatiOn Comparison with ObservAtions) code that has been developed to create idealized mock photometric observations using results from numerical simulations of star cluster evolution. cocoa is able to present the output of realistic numerical simulations of star clusters carried out using Monte Carlo or N-body codes in a way that is useful for direct comparison with photometric observations. In this paper, we describe the cocoa code and demonstrate its different applications by utilizing globular cluster (GC) models simulated with the mocca (MOnte Carlo Cluster simulAtor) code. cocoa is used to synthetically observe these different GC models with optical telescopes, perform point spread function photometry, and subsequently produce observed colour–magnitude diagrams. We also use cocoa to compare the results from synthetic observations of a cluster model that has the same age and metallicity as the Galactic GC NGC 2808 with observations of the same cluster carried out with a 2.2 m optical telescope. We find that cocoa can effectively simulate realistic observations and recover photometric data. cocoa has numerous scientific applications that maybe be helpful for both theoreticians and observers that work on star clusters. Plans for further improving and developing the code are also discussed in this paper. (Less)
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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85095505457
ISSN
1365-2966
DOI
10.1093/mnras/sty101
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
e7bd416f-1269-4065-aed0-667ac835814a
date added to LUP
2018-10-30 17:56:46
date last changed
2022-03-09 21:58:28
@article{e7bd416f-1269-4065-aed0-667ac835814a,
  abstract     = {{We introduce and present results from the cocoa (Cluster simulatiOn Comparison with ObservAtions) code that has been developed to create idealized mock photometric observations using results from numerical simulations of star cluster evolution. cocoa is able to present the output of realistic numerical simulations of star clusters carried out using Monte Carlo or N-body codes in a way that is useful for direct comparison with photometric observations. In this paper, we describe the cocoa code and demonstrate its different applications by utilizing globular cluster (GC) models simulated with the mocca (MOnte Carlo Cluster simulAtor) code. cocoa is used to synthetically observe these different GC models with optical telescopes, perform point spread function photometry, and subsequently produce observed colour–magnitude diagrams. We also use cocoa to compare the results from synthetic observations of a cluster model that has the same age and metallicity as the Galactic GC NGC 2808 with observations of the same cluster carried out with a 2.2 m optical telescope. We find that cocoa can effectively simulate realistic observations and recover photometric data. cocoa has numerous scientific applications that maybe be helpful for both theoreticians and observers that work on star clusters. Plans for further improving and developing the code are also discussed in this paper.}},
  author       = {{Askar, Abbas and Giersz, Mirek and Pych, Wojciech and Dalessandro, Emanuele}},
  issn         = {{1365-2966}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}},
  title        = {{COCOA Code for Creating Mock Observations of Star Cluster Models}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty101}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/mnras/sty101}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}