Introducing GAMER, a statistically correct galaxy morphology ray-tracer
Håkon and I have recently developed a new approach for fast and accurate raytracing of galaxies using Perlin noise random fields. Our method allows for efficient and realistic rendering of artificial galaxy morphologies, where individual components such as the bulge, disk, stars and dust can be synthesized in different wavelengths. These components follow empirically motivated overall intensity profiles, but contain an additional Perlin-noise component that give rise to natural patterns. These patterns produce more realistic-looking galaxy images than using analytical expressions alone. The method is fully parallelized, and creates both accurate high and low-resolution images that can be used e.g., in codes simulating strong and weak gravitational lensing.