Last modified: December 2025

URL: https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/sherpa/ahelp/xsbvcie.html
AHELP for CIAO 4.18 Sherpa

xsbvcie

Context: models

Synopsis

The XSPEC bvcie model: Emission spectrum from a plasma in Collisional-ionization equilibrium.

Syntax

xsbvcie

The xsbvcie model is an additive model component.

Description

The model is described at [1] . Note that set_xsxset should be used to change the XSET settings.


Example

>>> create_model_component("xsbvcie", "mdl")
>>> print(mdl)

Create a component of the xsbvcie model and display its default parameters. The output is:

mdl
   Param        Type          Value          Min          Max      Units
   -----        ----          -----          ---          ---      -----
   mdl.kT       thawed          6.5       0.0808       68.447        keV
   mdl.He       frozen            1            0         1000           
   mdl.C        frozen            1            0         1000           
   mdl.N        frozen            1            0         1000           
   mdl.O        frozen            1            0         1000           
   mdl.Ne       frozen            1            0         1000           
   mdl.Mg       frozen            1            0         1000           
   mdl.Al       frozen            1            0         1000           
   mdl.Si       frozen            1            0         1000           
   mdl.S        frozen            1            0         1000           
   mdl.Ar       frozen            1            0         1000           
   mdl.Ca       frozen            1            0         1000           
   mdl.Fe       frozen            1            0         1000           
   mdl.Ni       frozen            1            0         1000           
   mdl.Redshift frozen            0       -0.999           10           
   mdl.Velocity frozen            0            0        10000       km/s
   mdl.switch   frozen            2            0            3           
   mdl.norm     thawed            1            0        1e+24           

PARAMETERS

The parameters for this function are:

Parameter Definition
kT The plasma temperature in keV.
He The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
C The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
N The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
O The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
Ne The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
Na The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
Mg The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
Al The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
Si The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
S The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
Ar The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
Ca The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
Fe The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
Ni The abundance relative to Solar. The trace element abundaces are controlled by the "APEC_TRACE_ABUND" setting and default to 1.0.
Redshift The redshift of the plasma.
Velocity The gaussian sigma for the velocity broadening (in km/s) which is only used when switch > 1.
switch If 0, the mekal code is run to evaluate the model; if 1 then interpolation of the mekal data is used; if 2 then interpolation of APEC data is used; if 3 then SPEX data. See [1] for more details. This parameter can not be thawed.
norm The normalization of the model. See [1] for more details.

References

[1]

Changes in CIAO

Added in CIAO 4.17

XSPEC version

CIAO 4.18 comes with support for version 12.14.0k of the XSPEC models. This can be checked with the following:

% python -c 'from sherpa.astro import xspec;
print(xspec.get_xsversion())'
12.14.0k

Bugs

See the bugs pages on the Sherpa website for an up-to-date listing of known bugs.

See Also

models
xsbcie, xsbvvcie, xsvcie