AP-Lab-I-2022 : Spectral and timing variability of magnetized neutron stars

Supervisor: Carlo Ferrigno

Magnetized neutron stars accreting from a companion star emit X-ray radiation that is strongly modulated with the spin phase. They are also variables on time scales varying from seconds to months. By analyzing the pulsed emission, it is possible to study the emission mechanism and its geometry in the vicinity of the neutron star, where extreme gravity and radiation conditions are present. By analyzing the variability on different time scales, it is possible to study how the neutron star interact with the surrounding medium to capture the material to be accreted. The student will be asked to familiarize with one or two X-ray facilities and their data format as well as data reduction pipelines. Then, specific tools used for spectral and timing analysis will be applied to the reduced data sets and results visualized using python notebooks. Note that many methods are common to several research fields and can be used beyond the high-energy-astrophysics domain. Even if the student will be asked to contribute to the development of parts of the analysis and visualization tools using standard software versioning, most of the technical details will be mitigated by using software containers and self-developed python packages. The student will be asked to read and summarize research papers and provide a written report of their work that includes a literature review.

Use with git

git clone git@renkulab.io:carlo.ferrigno/ap-lab-i-2022.git 
make build
JUPYTER_PORT=4444 make notebook

or if you need the command line

make run

Then

git commit "MYFILE" -m "MYMESSAGE"
git push

To use a graphical interface see https://gist.github.com/sorny/969fe55d85c9b0035b0109a31cbcb088 (The following has a wrong command) https://www.isdc.unige.ch/integral/download/osa/doc/11.2/osa_inst_guide/node9.html#SECTION00061100000000000000

Use in Renku (need testing)

Run it with enough storage and 8 Gb memory, better at least 1 CPU

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Introduction

This is a Renku project - basically a git repository with some bells and whistles. You'll find we have already created some useful things like data and notebooks directories and a Dockerfile.

Working with the project

The simplest way to start your project is right from the Renku platform - just click on the Environments tab and start a new session. This will start an interactive environment right in your browser.

To work with the project anywhere outside the Renku platform, click the Settings tab where you will find the git repo URLs - use git to clone the project on whichever machine you want.

Changing interactive environment dependencies

Initially we install a very minimal set of packages to keep the images small. However, you can add python and conda packages in requirements.txt and environment.yml to your heart's content. If you need more fine-grained control over your environment, please see the documentation.

Project configuration

Project options can be found in .renku/renku.ini. In this project there is currently only one option, which specifies the default type of environment to open, in this case /lab for JupyterLab. You may also choose /tree to get to the "classic" Jupyter interface.

Moving forward

Once you feel at home with your project, we recommend that you replace this README file with your own project documentation! Happy data wrangling!