Disclaimer: This code is distributed freely to the community. The user accepts sole responsibility for the results produced by the code. Although every effort has been made to identify and eliminate errors, we accept no responsibility for erroneous model predictions.
The Starburst99 code and the models should be quoted as Leitherer et al. (1999, ApJS, 123, 3) and Vazquez & Leitherer (2005; ApJ, 621, 695). If reference to the Hillier or Pauldrach model atmospheres is made, please quote Smith, Norris, & Crowther (2002).
Download the source code v5.1 and the ancillary files. This link has all the files needed to run the UNIX/Solaris version of Starburst99, which is currently the default.
We also provide a link to a LINUX version of the Starburst99 source code. This version corresponds to v5.0 of the UNIX version and was kindly provided by Lihong Yao (Univ. of Toronto). If you are interested in this version, you should first download the UNIX version with all the ancillary files, and then replace the source code and all compiler specific files by the contents of the LINUX link. To compile use "g77 -O2 -o galaxy_linux galaxy_linux.f". Note that v5.1 of the source code contains several fixes that caused errors in v5.0. Read the Knowledge Base article of April 10, 2006 to determine if this may affect your results when using the available LINUX version.
File structure
The package comes with quite a few files. Some are essential whereas others
are not, and you can do without them.
How to run the code
Get organized first.
The input
Once all the files are in place and the declarations are complete, the input
parameters need to be specified. If this is your first attempt, we suggest
to leave the parameters as they are. They produce reasonable results and
should give you a first impression of what is in store. Once you have gained
more experience and have become more adventurous, you can modify the parameters
to suit your needs. These are the parameters to play with:
MODEL DESIGNATION: [NAME]
standard -- any identifier you want to assign to the model. You will find
it in the header of each output file.
CONTINUOUS STAR FORMATION (>0) OR FIXED MASS (<=0): [ISF]
-1 -- if this is a negative integer, star formation is instantaneous,
otherwise it is continuous.
TOTAL STELLAR MASS [106 SOLAR MASSES] IF 'FIXED MASS' IS CHOSEN: [TOMA]
1. -- this is the total stellar mass (spread out between the upper and lower
cut-off mases). It is only used if an instantaneous burst is specified.
SFR [SOLAR MASSES PER YEAR] IF 'CONT. SF' IS CHOSEN: [SFR]
1. -- the star formation rate (only used for a continuous rate). The total
accumulated mass is spread out between the upper and lower cut-off
masses.
NUMBER OF INTERVALS FOR THE IMF (KROUPA=2): [NINTERV]
2 -- intervals of the multi-power-law IMF. If two intervals are specified,
the program expects two IMF exponents and three IMF boundaries in the
next two input fields. Up to ten such intervals may be specified.
IMF EXPONENT(S) (KROUPA=1.3,2.3): [XPONENT]
1.3,2.3 -- one or more IMF exponents for a power-law can be specified. The
exponents refer to the individual power-law intervals, ordered
by increasing mass.
MASS BOUNDARIES FOR IMF (KROUPA=0.1,0.5,100) [SOLAR MASSES]: [XMASLIM]
0.1,0.5,100. -- the boundaries of the IMF intervals corresponding to the
specified exponents.
SUPERNOVA CUT-OFF MASS [SOLAR MASSES]: [SNCUT]
8.0 -- stars with ZAMS masses of 8 M and higher form supernovae. This is the
suggested standard value but can be modified if desired.
BLACK HOLE CUT-OFF MASS [SOLAR MASSES]: [BHCUT]
120. -- stars with ZAMS masses of 120 M and lower form supernovae. An
alternative scenario would be to let stars above a certain threshold
form a black hole. For instance, BHCUT=40. results in SNe only from the
mass range 40 to 8 M.
METALLICITY + TRACKS: [IZ]
GENEVA STD: 11=0.001; 12=0.004; 13=0.008; 14=0.020; 15=0.040
GENEVA HIGH:21=0.001; 22=0.004; 23=0.008; 24=0.020; 25=0.040
PADOVA STD: 31=0.0004; 32=0.004; 33=0.008; 34=0.020; 35=0.050
PADOVA AGB: 41=0.0004; 42=0.004; 43=0.008; 44=0.020; 45=0.050
24 -- this integer indicates the evolutionary tracks to be used. The
choices are 11-15, 21-25, 31-35, and 41-45, where the numbers indicate
the metallicity of the four sets of tracks that are available. Example:
"23" selects 40% solar metallicity from the Geneva high mass-loss
tracks.
WIND MODEL (0: EVOLUTION; 1: EMP.; 2: THEOR.; 3: ELSON): [IWIND]
2 -- this selects the wind model to be used for the calculation of the
wind power. The four models are discussed in ApJ, 401, 596 (1992). "0"
is the suggested default parameter.
INITIAL TIME [1.E6 YEARS]: [TIME1]
0.01 -- the epoch of the onset of the star formation. In almost all cases you
want this to be close to 0. It should not be exactly 0 for numerical
reasons. 0.01 (i.e. 10e4 yr) is a good number.
TIME SCALE: LINEAR (=0) OR LOGARITHMIC (=1) [JTIME] 0 -- a switch to select linear or logarithmic time intervals.
TIME STEP [1.e6 YEARS] (ONLY USED IF JTIME=0): [TBIV]
0.1 -- this is the timestep used for the calculations. It is a very important
parameter. On the one hand, the computing time scales with STEP, so
you want to avoid too high resolution, but on the other, short
evolutionary phases can be missed. 0.1 (i.e. 10e5 yr) is a good
value if you use full isochrone synthesis. If full isochrone
synthesis is not used, 0.1 or large is suggested only for tests
--- be aware that WR or RSG numbers are no longer properly calculated
for a STEP of 0.1 unless full ischrone synthesis is selected!
NUMBER OF STEPS (ONLY USED IF JTIME=1): [ITBIV]
1000 -- if a logarithmic scaling is selected, the time step size varies with
time and is no longer specified via the TIME STEP field. In this case,
we enter the total number of time steps, which will then be distributed
logarithmically between the first and the last time point. As before,
users should beware of too small steps during short-lived evolutionary
phases.
LAST GRID POINT [1.e6 YEARS]: [TMAX] 100. -- the oldest age of the model.
SMALL (=0) OR LARGE (=1) MASS GRID;
ISOCHRONE ON LARGE GRID (=2) OR FULL ISOCHRONE (=3): [JMG]
3 -- these are four options for the interpolation in mass. They are explained
in the code. Shortly: 0 -- evolutionary synthesis with a mass
resolution of 5 M (only recommended for tests); 1 -- same as 0, but with
a resolution of 1 M. This method was used in Leitherer & Heckman (1995);
2 -- isochrone synthesis with a fixed mass resolution of 1 M;
3 -- isochrone synthesis with a variable mass grid. This is the recommended
method. In particular, FULL ISOCHRONE must be used if masses below 1 solar
masses from the Padova tracks are to be included in the modeling.
LMIN, LMAX (ALL=0): [LMIN,LMAX]
0 -- LMIN and LMAX are the indices of the evolutionary tracks, sorted by mass.
Normally you do not want to mess with the variable and leave it at 0.
However, if you want to track down some peculiarity of the output, you
may want to compute the parameters for only one track. For instance,
specifying 21,21 indicates that only a 100 M star should be used, and
everything else is suppressed. The cross-ID's between index and mass
are at the bottom of the input file. The example here refers to JMG=1 or
2. For JMG=0, you would have chosen 5,5. This does not apply to JMG=3
since the mass grid is variable. If JMG=3, LMIN and LMAX are not used.
TIME STEP FOR PRINTING OUT THE SYNTHETIC SPECTRA [1.e6YR]: [TDEL]
1.0 -- the file containing the output spectrum can be pretty big. This
parameter controls the time step to print out the spectrum. This is
independent of the time resolution -- only the print out is affected!
1 Myr is usually a good value but if you compute the starburst up to
100 Myr, you may prefer TDEL=5 Myr unless you have many Mb of disk
space.
ATMOSPHERE FOR THE LOW-RES SPECTRUM: 1=PLA, 2=LEJ, 3=LEJ+SCH, 4=LEJ+HIL, 5=PAU+HIL [IATMOS]
5 -- this is the choice of the model atmosphere. 1 is a bare-bone version with
black bodies, good only for tests. 2 uses the Kurucz models as compiled
by Lejeune for all stars. 3 uses Lejeune for stars with plane-parallel
atmospheres and Schmutz for stars with strong winds. 4 uses Lejeune,
but replaces the Schmutz by the Hillier atmospheres. 5 is like 4, except
for the O atmospheres, for which we use the Pauldrach models. 5 is the
recommended value.
METALLICITY OF THE HIGH RESOLUTION MODELS [ILIB]
(1=0.001, 2= 0.008, 3=0.020, 4=0.040):
3 -- a switch to choose the metallicity of the optical high-res spectra. 4
choices are offered, and the user can decide how to match them to the
evolution models.
LIBRARY FOR THE UV LINE SPECTRUM: (1=SOLAR, 2=LMC/SMC) [ILINE]
1 -- a switch for the choice of the UV spectral library. This switch applies
to both the FUSE and the HST/IUE libraries. It is independent of the
metallicity of the tracks/atmospheres. Normally one would use
ILINE=1 with IZ=24 and ILINE=2 with IZ=22.
RSG FEATURE: MICROTURB. VEL (1-6), SOL/NON-SOL ABUND (0,1) [IVT,IRSG]
3,0 -- atmospheric parameters used for the spectral features in the near-IR.
Detailed explanations are in the sp-feature subroutine. Defaults are
3,0, i.e. microturbulent velocities of 3 km/sec and solar abundance
ratios for alpha-element/Fe.
OUTPUT FILES (NO<0, YES>=0) [IO1,...]
+1,+1,-1,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1,-1
These are options to generate various outputs. We recommend to use
the default setting for the flags, at least until you become more
familiar with the code. Some of the subroutines are interrelated. If
you choose such a subroutine but not the other, required one, a warning
will be issued. The 15 output flags are explained in the next section.
They are discussed in the order as they appear above. For instance,
"(7)" refers to the 7th of the 15 flags.
The output