gcfit.probabilities.pulsars.field_Pdot_KDE

gcfit.probabilities.pulsars.field_Pdot_KDE(*, pulsar_db='field_msp.dat')

Return a gaussian kde representing the galactic field pulsar P-Pdot.

Computes a 2D gaussian KDE based on the period and period derivative distribution of galactic field millisecond pulsars, which can then be used to slice out a probability distribution of the intrinsic spin-down Pdot given a period P.

This is a required component for all pulsar likelihoods, under the assumption that the field and cluster pulsars share a similar intrinsic distribution. This KDE should be pre-constructed (by valid_likelihoods), and it is unlikely users need to call this function directly.

Pulsar data is retrieved from the ATNF pulsar catalogue using the psrcat program. The data can be found in the package resources, and can be recreated using the command: psrcat -db_file psrcat.db -c “p0 p1 p1_i GB GL Dist” -l “p0 < 0.1 && p1 > 0 && p1_i > 0 && ! assoc(GC)” -x > field_msp.dat

Parameters:

pulsar_dbstr, optional

Name of the pulsar data file. Do not change unless you know what you are doing and have supplied your own data file.

Returns:

scipy.stats.gaussian_kde

The 2D Gaussian KDE representing the intrinsic spin-down distributions of galactic field pulsars.