Population Synthesis
The population synthesis framework is built on top of the `_stellar-binary-simulation`_ framework, and evolves a population of binaries using the `BinaryPopulation`_ class.
It uses the same configuration file as the `_stellar-binary-simulation`_ framework, but it also allows to specify the initial conditions of the population, such as the initial mass function, the initial mass ratio distribution, and the initial orbital period distribution. See `SimulationProperties`_ for more information on the configuration parameters.
The Binary Population Object
The BinaryPopulation object contains a list of BinaryStar objects and the SimulationProperties object which contains the information about the population synthesis model.
The Synthetic Population Object
The SyntheticPopulation object contains a collection of BinaryPopulation objects run, e.g. at different metallicities or with different model assumptions. It also provide the POSYDON API interface to analyse, process, and visualize the results of a POSYDON population synthesis model.
Reweighting Populations
POSYDON provides a reweighting framework that allows users to reweight the results of a population synthesis model to match a different set of initial conditions. This is useful for exploring the effects of different initial conditions on the results of a population synthesis model without having to run a new simulation.
The Star Formation History
The star formation history is a key component in population synthesis, since it determined the amount of stars that are formed at each moment in time.