UTM, a universal simulator for lightcurves of transiting systems

TL;DR

UTM is a versatile, open-source light-curve simulator capable of modeling various transiting and eclipsing systems, aiding in detection algorithm testing and data fitting.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive, publicly available simulator and fitter for complex transiting systems, including stars, planets, moons, and rings, with applications in mission data analysis.

Findings

Generated multicolour light-curves for the CoRoT mission

Provided a flexible tool for testing detection algorithms

Enabled fitting of light-curves with variable parameters

Abstract

The Universal Transit Modeller (UTM) is a light-curve simulator for all kinds of transiting or eclipsing configurations between arbitrary numbers of several types of objects, which may be stars, planets, planetary moons, and planetary rings. Applications of UTM to date have been mainly in the generation of light-curves for the testing of detection algorithms. For the preparation of such test for the Corot Mission, a special version has been used to generate multicolour light-curves in Corot's passbands. A separate fitting program, UFIT (Universal Fitter) is part of the UTM distribution and may be used to derive best fits to light-curves for any set of continuously variable parameters. UTM/UFIT is written in IDL code and its source is released in the public domain under the GNU General Public License.