4.1.15. Etau: simple transmission model

This model calculates the transmission T(E) between energies E1 and E_2 for a simple (often unphysical!) case:

T(E) = e^{-\tau(E)},

with the optical depth \tau(E) given by:

\tau(E) = \tau_0 E^a.

In addition, we put here T\equiv 1 for E<E_1 and E>E_2, where E_1 and E_2 are adjustable parameters. This allows the user for example to mimick an edge. Note however, that in most circumstances there are more physical models present in SPEX that contain realistic transmissions of edges! If you do not want or need edges, simply keep E_1 and E_2 at their default values.

Note that \tau_0 should be non-negative. For a>0 the spectrum has a high-energy cut-off, for a<0 it has a low-energy cut-off, and for a=0 the transmission is flat. The larger the value of a, the sharper the cut-off is.

The model can be used as a basis for more complicated continuum absorption models. For example, if the optical depth is given as a polynomial in the photon energy E, say for example \tau = 2 + 3E + 4E^2, one may define three etau components, with \tau_0 values of 2, 3, and 4, and indices a of 0, 1 and 2. This is because of the mathematical identity e^{-(\tau_1+\tau_2)} = e^{-\tau1}\times e^{-\tau2}.

As of version 3.08.00 a new option has been added to use an input transmission spectrum instead of an analytical description. The file has a similar structure as the file model for emission spectra. The first line must contain the number of energies in the file. The next lines contain two numbers for each entry: the energy in keV, and the scaled optical depth t (dimensionless). The entries must be in increasing energy order. The transmission T(E) is then computed as \mathrm{T(E)} = e^{(-\tau_0 t(E))} where \tau_0 is the first parameter of the model tau0.

The parameters of the model are:

tau0 : Optical depth \tau_0 at E=1 keV. Default value: 1.
a : The index a defined above. Default value: 1.
e1 : Lower energy E_1 (keV). Default value: 10^{-20}.
e2 : Upper energy E_2 (keV). Default value: 10^{20}.
f : The covering factor of the absorber. Default value: 1 (full covering)
mode: mode=0: Default etau model (analytical description). mode=1: Input of the optical depth of the absorber as a file model.
file: The name of the file that provides the transmission.