MESAFace, a graphical interface to analyze the MESA output

MESA (Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics) has become very popular among astrophysicists as a powerful and reliable code to simulate stellar evolution. Analyzing the output data thoroughly may, however, present some challenges and be rather time-consuming. Here we describe MESAFace, a graphical and dynamical interface which provides an intuitive, efficient and quick way to analyze the MESA output.

Find a way to quickly and thoroughly analyze the output of a MESA run, including all the profiles, and have an efficient method to produce graphical representations of the data.

We created two scripts (to be run consecutively). The first one downloads all the data from a MESA run and organizes the profiles in order of age. All the files are saved as tables or arrays of tables which can then be accessed very quickly by Mathematica. The second script uses the Manipulate function to create a graphical interface which allows the user to choose what to plot from a set of menus and buttons. The information shown is updated in real time. The user can access very quickly all the data from the run under examination and visualize it with plots and tables.

Moving the slides in certain regions may cause an error message. This happens when Mathematica is asked to read nonexistent data. The error message, however, disappears when the slides are moved back. This issue does not preclude the good functioning of the interface.

The program uses the dynamical capabilities of Mathematica. When the program is opened, Mathematica prompts the user to "Enable Dynamics". It is necessary to accept before proceeding.

Depends on the size of the data downloaded, on where the data are stored (hard-drive or web), and on the speed of the computer or network connection. In general, downloading the data may take from a minute to several minutes. Loading directly from the web is slower. For example, downloading a 200MB data folder (a total of 102 files) with a dual-core Intel laptop, P8700, 2 GB of RAM, at 2.53 GHz took about a minute from the hard-drive and about 23 minutes from the web (with a basic home wireless connection).