ELFO: A Python Package for Emission Line Fitting Optimization in Integral Field Spectroscopy Data

TL;DR

ELFO is a Python package that improves emission line fitting in integral field spectroscopy by leveraging spatial information to produce more consistent and detailed results.

Contribution

It introduces a novel fitting approach that uses neighboring spectra to enhance the accuracy and spatial smoothness of emission line decomposition in IFS data.

Findings

Corrected anomalous fits in quasar data

Revealed previously unresolved substructures

Enhanced detection of large-scale kinematic features

Abstract

Integral field spectroscopy (IFS) provides spatially resolved spectra, enabling detailed studies that address the physical and kinematic properties of the interstellar medium. A critical step in analyzing IFS data is the decomposition of emission lines, where different velocity components are often modeled with Gaussian profiles. However, conventional fitting methods that treat each spectrum independently often yield spatial discontinuities in the fitting results. Here, we present Emission Line Fitting Optimization (ELFO), a Python package for IFS spectral fitting. ELFO uses the results of neighboring spectra to determine multiple initial guesses and selects the result that exhibits spatial smoothness. We tested ELFO on IFS data of two quasars obtained from the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, where it successfully corrected anomalous fits, revealed previously unresolved substructures, and made large-scale kinematic structures more evident. With minor modifications, this method can also be easily adapted to other IFS data and different emission lines.