Synthesizer is a Python package for generating synthetic astrophysical observables. It is modular, flexible, extensible and fast.
Read the documentation here.
The latest stable release of Synthesizer can be installed directly using pip,
pip install cosmos-synthesizerPlease refer to the installation documentation for further information.
Note: We do not currently support Windows, to use Synthesizer on Windows please install the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
Various configuration options can also be set at installation (see here).
In most use cases you will need a grid of theoretical spectra. Premade grids can be downloaded from the grids data server.
Note that you can also create your own grids using (or adapting) the grid-generation repo.
Please see here for contribution guidelines.
Please cite both of the following papers (Lovell et al. 2025, Roper et al. 2025) if you use Synthesizer in your research:
@ARTICLE{2025arXiv250803888L,
author = {{Lovell}, Christopher C. and {Roper}, William J. and {Vijayan}, Aswin P. and {Wilkins}, Stephen M. and {Newman}, Sophie and {Seeyave}, Louise},
title = "{Synthesizer: a Software Package for Synthetic Astronomical Observables}",
journal = {arXiv e-prints},
keywords = {Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, Astrophysics of Galaxies},
year = 2025,
month = aug,
eid = {arXiv:2508.03888},
pages = {arXiv:2508.03888},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
eprint = {2508.03888},
primaryClass = {astro-ph.IM},
adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025arXiv250803888L},
adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}
@ARTICLE{2025arXiv250615811R,
author = {{Roper}, Will J. and {Lovell}, Christopher and {Vijayan}, Aswin and {Wilkins}, Stephen and {Akins}, Hollis and {Berger}, Sabrina and {Sant Fournier}, Connor and {Harvey}, Thomas and {Iyer}, Kartheik and {Leonardi}, Marco and {Newman}, Sophie and {Pautasso}, Borja and {Perry}, Ashley and {Seeyave}, Louise and {Sommovigo}, Laura},
title = "{Synthesizer: Synthetic Observables For Modern Astronomy}",
journal = {arXiv e-prints},
keywords = {Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astrophysics of Galaxies},
year = 2025,
month = jun,
eid = {arXiv:2506.15811},
pages = {arXiv:2506.15811},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
eprint = {2506.15811},
primaryClass = {astro-ph.IM},
adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025arXiv250615811R},
adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}