NutMaat

NutMaat is a Python package designed to classify stellar spectra on the MK Spectral Classification system in a way similar to humans—by direct comparison with the MK classification standards, based on the MKCLASS C package. The package is OS-independent, installable via pip, and integrated with to work with pandas data frames.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Installation
• Usage
• Documentation
• Citing NutMaat
• Contact
• License

Features

• Spectral type determination by comparison to a standard library
• Detecting a number of spectral peculiarities, e.g. barium stars, carbon-rich giants, Am stars, etc.
• Evaluating the quality of the classification
• Capablity of classifying spectra in the violet–green region in either the rectified or flux-calibrated format
• No need to correct for reddening
• Possibility to use custom standard libraries
• Batching large number of stars for classification

Installation

NutMaat requires:

• numpy>=2.0.0
• pandas==2.2.2
• scipy>=1.14.0
• tqdm>=4.66.5

To install NutMaat, simply use pip:

pip install NutMaat

Alternatively, you can install it directly from the source by cloning the repository:

git clone https://github.com/rehamelkholy/nutmaat.git
cd NutMaat
python setup.py install

Usage

Here's a quick example showing how to use NutMaat to classify a stellar spectrum from file:

from NutMaat.classifier import Classifier

# initializing the classifier
clf = Classifier()

# defining the file_path
file_path = <your_file_path>

# applying classification method
result = clf.classify_spectrum(2, 3, from_file=True, file_name=file_path)

# printing the result
print(result)

For more advanced use cases such as classifying using pandas data frames, classifying several spectra at a time, or rebinning or smoothing spectra prior to classification, refer to the examples folder.

Documentation

NutMaat comes with comprehensive docstrings embedded within the code. You can easily access the documentation for any function or class by using Python’s built-in help() function. For example:

from NutMaat.classifier import Classifier
help(Classifier.classify_spectrum)

Citing NutMaat

If you use NutMaat in your research or publications, please cite it using the following BibTeX entry:

@misc{nutmaat2024,
  author = {{El-Kholy}, R.~I. and {Hayman}, Z.~M.},
  title  = {NutMaat: A Python library for classifying stellar spectra based on the MKCLASS package},
  year   = {2024},
  doi    = {10.5281/zenodo.13945430},
  url    = {https://github.com/rehamelkholy/NutMaat},
}

Since NutMaat is based upon the C package MCCLASS, please also cite the following paper:

@article{mcclass2014,
  author = {{Gray}, R.~O. and {Corbally}, C.~J.},
  title = "{An Expert Computer Program for Classifying Stars on the MK Spectral Classification System}",
  journal = {\aj},
  year = 2014,
  volume = {147},
  number = {4},
  pages = {80},
  doi = {10.1088/0004-6256/147/4/80},
}

Additionally, we appreciate it if you mention NutMaat in the acknowledgments section of your papers or reports.

Contact

If you have any questions, feedback, or need assistance, feel free to reach out:

• Email: relkholy@sci.cu.edu.eg or reham.elkholy@cu.edu.eg
• GitHub Issues: https://github.com/rehamelkholy/NutMaat/issues

License

NutMaat is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.