Stellar Population Synthesis

Modelling stellar populations, for observational and theoretical applications

Stellar Population Synthesis (SPS) is a key ingredient in forward models for galaxy emission (see Conroy 2013).

I have used SPS models in a wide range of projects. Most recently, Sophie Newman, a student at the ICG, used the CLOUDY photoionization code to explore the line and continuum emission properties of young star forming regions (Newman et al., 2025), utilising our Synthesizer code.

Stellar, nebular line and continuum emission components from the M24 Maraston models (Newman et al., 2025).

I have also developed an online tool, Sengi, for exploring SPS models in an interactive way. Details on the implementation are published in (Lovell, 2021).

References

2025

  1. arXiv
    Cloudy-Maraston: Integrating nebular continuum and line emission with the Maraston stellar population synthesis models
    Sophie L. Newman, Christopher C. Lovell, Claudia Maraston, and 5 more authors
    Jan 2025
    arXiv:2501.03133 [astro-ph]

2021

  1. A&C
    Sengi: A small, fast, interactive viewer for spectral outputs from stellar population synthesis models
    C. C. Lovell
    A&C, Jan 2021