Some important notes on ASTA software: A new method of analysis of simple and complex emission and absorption spectral lines

Abstract

Abstract ASTA is a new spectral analysis software aiming to serve the growing need of an integrated computing environment which will implement efficiently the demanding process of multicomponent analysis. It is a cutting-edge spectral multicomponent analysis software for displaying, fitting and analyzing astronomical spectra of complex emission and absorption line profiles. Equipped with statistical and verification tools it accelerates complex mathematical precision checks and confirms the uniqueness of the calculated physical parameters and the number of the absorption components that construct every Broad Absorption/Emission Line (BAL/BEL) and Discrete Absorption Components (DACs). DACs (in the case of Hot Emission Stars) and BALs/BELs (in the case of Quasars) are spectral lines of the same ion and the same wavelength as the main spectral line, shifted at different Δ λ , as they are created in different density regions which rotate and move radially with different velocities. The currently accepted view is that BELs, BALs and DACs may be due to a flow of many individual density enhancements, called clouds, cloudlets or clumps which are optically thick and very small compared with the size of the central continuum source. These density enhancements are not preexisting entities but are formed inside an unstable and turbulent wind and they are indicated by very complex profiles. According to this phenomenon, a prevailing view is that they are not simple absorption/emission lines, but the synthesis of a group of classical absorption line components of the same spectral line. ASTA software equipped with a multicomponent analysis model is a novel approach to curve fit these complex lines focusing on the physical representation of the calculated parameters of each of these components. The BAL Quasar SDSS J114548.38 + 393746.6 case study is analyzed to demonstrate the potential of ASTA, whereas the Quasar SDSS 27.01 + 030715.5 narrow absorption line highlights the flexibility to analyze effectively simple spectral profiles.