A visualization toolkit for the simulation code Arepo

Abstract

In this paper I describe the visualization toolkit Sator, which is designed to read, analyze and visualize simulation data of the moving-mesh code Arepo. It is written in Python and employs a graphical user interface based on the Tkinter module, providing an interactive and intuitive user experience. All three snapshot formats employed by Arepo are supported, including the HDF5 format. Individual snapshot fields, for example cell coordinates, are read interactively only when they are needed. Refined fields used for plots, for example the temperature, are constructed from snapshot fields and can be introduced with only a few lines of code. Sator currently supports the generation of image slices and projections, which can be zoomed, moved and rotated with minimal computational effort. Furthermore, various phase space and line plots can be created. Due to its modular nature, additional analysis and plotting routines can be easily implemented and are under construction. The code is well documented and is intended to be free and open source, such that any member of the astrophysical community may contribute.