Answers from the Void: VIDE and its Applications

Abstract

AbstractWe discuss various applications ofvide, the Void IDentification and Examination toolkit, an open-source Python/C++ code for finding cosmic voids in galaxy redshift surveys and $N$-body simulations. Based on a substantially enhanced version ofZOBOV,videnot only finds voids, but also summarizes their properties, extracts statistical information, and provides a Python-based platform for more detailed analysis, such as manipulating void catalogs and particle members, filtering, plotting, computing clustering statistics, stacking, comparing catalogs, and fitting density profiles.videalso provides significant additional functionality for pre-processing inputs: for example,videcan work with volume- or magnitude-limited galaxy samples with arbitrary survey geometries, or dark matter particles or halo catalogs in a variety of common formats. It can also randomly subsample inputs and includes a Halo Occupation Distribution model for constructing mock galaxy populations.videhas been used for a wide variety of applications, from discovering a universal density profile to estimating primordial magnetic fields, and is publicly available athttp://bitbucket.org/cosmicvoids/vide\_publicandhttp://www.cosmicvoids.net.