References

Publications

This is the bibliography containing the literature references for the implemented methods referenced from the Gammapy docs.

The best reference to TeV data analysis is Chapter 7 of Mathieu de Naurois’s habilitation thesis.

[Albert2007]

Albert et al. (2007), “Unfolding of differential energy spectra in the MAGIC experiment”,

[Berge2007]

Berge et al. (2007), “Background modelling in very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy”

[Cash1979]

Cash (1979), “Parameter estimation in astronomy through application of the likelihood ratio”

[Cousins2007]

Cousins et al. (2007), “Evaluation of three methods for calculating statistical significance when incorporating a systematic uncertainty into a test of the background-only hypothesis for a Poisson process”

[Feldman1998]

Feldman & Cousins (1998), “Unified approach to the classical statistical analysis of small signals”

[Lafferty1994]

Lafferty & Wyatt (1994), “Where to stick your data points: The treatment of measurements within wide bins”

[LiMa1983]

Li & Ma (1983), “Analysis methods for results in gamma-ray astronomy”

[Meyer2010]

Meyer et al. (2010), “The Crab Nebula as a standard candle in very high-energy astrophysics”

[Naurois2012]

de Naurois (2012), “Very High Energy astronomy from H.E.S.S. to CTA. Opening of a new astronomical window on the non-thermal Universe”,

[Piron2001]

Piron et al. (2001), “Temporal and spectral gamma-ray properties of Mkn 421 above 250 GeV from CAT observations between 1996 and 2000”,

[Rolke2005]

Rolke et al. (2005), “Limits and confidence intervals in the presence of nuisance parameters”,

[Stewart2009]

Stewart (2009), “Maximum-likelihood detection of sources among Poissonian noise”

Software references:

[Raue2012]

Raue (2012), “PyFACT: Python and FITS analysis for Cherenkov telescopes”

[Robitaille2013]

Robitaille et al. (2013) “Astropy: A community Python package for astronomy”

[Knoedlseder2012]

Knödlseder et at. (2012) “GammaLib: A New Framework for the Analysis of Astronomical Gamma-Ray Data”

[FSSC2013]

Fermi LAT Collaboration (2013) “Science Tools: LAT Data Analysis Tools”

[Mayer2015]

Michael Mayer (2015) “Pulsar wind nebulae at high energies”

Glossary

[CSV]

comma-separated values; see also CSV.

[MET]

mission elapsed time; see also Mission elapsed times (MET) in Time handling in Gammapy.

[RST]

restructured text; the markup format used for documentation and docstrings. See here and here.

Other related packages

Besides Gammapy, there are two other major open-source analysis packages (that we are aware of) for multi-mission gamma-ray likelihood analysis:

• Gammalib /ctools is a C++ package with Python wrapper, similar to the Fermi-LAT ScienceTools, that to a large degree uses the same input data formats as Gammapy.
• 3ML is a Python package that uses existing packages (e.g. the Fermi-LAT ScienceTools or the HAWC software) to deal with the data and IRFs and compute the likelihood for a given model.

So there is some overlap of Gammapy with other efforts, but as mentioned in Overview the scope of Gammapy is larger. And also all packages are new and the implementations radically different, so that’s a good thing when it comes to flexibility and the ability to cross-check results and methods.

Make sure to also check out the following packages that contain very useful functionality for gamma-ray astronomy:

• Sherpa — X-ray modeling and fitting package by the Chandra X-ray Center
• ctapipe — CTA Python pipeline experimental version
• FermiPy — Fermi-LAT science tools high-level Python interface by Matthew Wood
• gammatools — Python tools for Fermi-LAT gamma-ray data analysis by Matthew Wood
• pointlike – Fermi-LAT science tools alternative by Toby Burnett
• naima — an SED modeling and fitting package by Victor Zabalza
• Gamera, Gappa — a C++ gamma-ray source modeling package (SED, SNR model, Galactic population model) with a Python wrapper called Gappa by Joachim Hahn
• FLaapLUC — Fermi/LAT automatic aperture photometry Light C<->Urve pipeline by Jean-Philippe Lenain
• http://voparis-cta-client.obspm.fr/ — prototype web app for CTA data access / analysis, not open source.

Some other projects:

• act-analysis — Python scripts and Makefiles for some common gamma-ray data analysis tasks by Karl Kosack
• VHEObserverTools — tools to predict detectability at VHE by Jeremy Perkins
• photon_simulator — Python code to simulate X-ray observations
• pycrflux — Python module to plot cosmic-ray flux

Other useful packages

In addition to the packages mentioned in the last section and at Dependencies, here’s a few other Python packages you might find useful / interesting:

• See the list here: http://www.astropy.org/affiliated/
• Pulsar timing package PINT
• iminuit fitter and probfit likelihood function builder.
• Andy strong has C++ codes (GALPROP and Galplot) for Galactic cosmic rays and emission and source population synthesis at http://www.mpe.mpg.de/~aws/propagate.html .