New in v12.10.0

New features

• The mdefine command now allows new models to be defined by equations which include xspec model functions. Among the capabilities this enables is to redefine model parameters. For instance, suppose we want to use the pexrav model but have one parameter be the inclination instead of the cosine of the inclination, as defined in the model. Then we mdefine a new model:
  mdefine mypex pexrav(g,f,refl,z,A,FeA,cos(Incl))

• New Models:
  
  

  brnei	rnei models with line broadening
  grbcomp	GRB prompt emission model
  jet	Leptonic relativistic jet model
  ssa	Strangeon star atmosphere model

• Updated Models:
  • The default AtomDB version number is now 3.0.9.
  • The xset APECMINFLUX option for apec models now includes the $10^{14}$ normalization factor and the time dilation correction.
  • A new xset APECBROADPSEUDO option switches on line broadening of the pseudo-continuum (this contains low emissivity lines which are not individually tabulated in the AtomDB lines file).
  • Most of the model data files have been converted to FITS. In several cases multiple files have been merged into a single file with multiple extensions. This should make no difference to any results.
  • Uniform wrappers based on the model name are now available for all model functions. C++ wrappers are CXX_modelname, C wrappers are C_modelname, and Fortran wrappers are f_modelname.
  • The xscmdnewpar command can now handle multiple ranges specified on the command line.

• Markov Chain Monte Carlo:
  • MCMC chains now work with response parameters.
  • Geweke's convergence diagnostic and the Deviance Information Criterion have been added to the output.
  • When plotting multiple chains each is now placed in its own plot group (and hence plotted in a different color) instead of being concatenated.
  • plot options for running means and autocorrelations have been added.
  • The fraction column produced by the margin command can be written out using the tclout margin fraction option.

• CUSUM has been added to the test statistics.

• Options have been added to plot goodness to control the number of bins and whether the binning is linear or logarithmic.

• An option to set the background spectrum exposure time has been added to multifake.

Bug fixes

All bug fixes to v12.9.1 released as patches are included in v12.10.0. In addition, the following problems have been corrected:

• The pexrav model sometimes crashed with a negative or zero incomplete gamma value.
• steppar was mishandling parameters belonging to named models starting with an l or an n. It was mixing this up with the log and nolog options.
• The error command did not handle the unnamed specifier on the command line.
• mdefine model definitions were not handled correctly by the save command.
• XSPEC did not properly handle extended file syntax such as filename[n] and filename+n for cases where multiple HDUs shared the same EXTNAME and weren't differentiated by EXTVER.
• editmod did not correctly parse certain cases of table model filenames which included a hyphen.
• The goodness command when run in parallel processing mode failed if it had to prompt for continuation of a fit.
• tclout idline had a memory leak.
• chain best and chain info were using the currently variable parameters instead of the loaded chain files.