Trident: A Universal Tool for Generating Synthetic Absorption Spectra from Astrophysical Simulations

Hydrodynamical simulations are increasingly able to accurately model physical systems on stellar, galactic, and cosmological scales; however, the utility of these simulations is often limited by our ability to directly compare them with the data sets produced by observers: spectra, photometry, etc. To address this problem, we have created trident, a Python-based open-source tool for post-processing hydrodynamical simulations to produce synthetic absorption spectra and related data. trident can (I) create absorption-line spectra for any trajectory through a simulated data set mimicking both background quasar and down-the-barrel configurations; (II) reproduce the spectral characteristics of common instruments like the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph; (III) operate across the ultraviolet, optical, and infrared using customizable absorption-line lists; (IV) trace simulated physical structures directly to spectral features; (v) approximate the presence of ion species absent from the simulation outputs; (VI) generate column density maps for any ion; and (vii) provide support for all major astrophysical hydrodynamical codes. trident was originally developed to aid in the interpretation of observations of the circumgalactic medium and intergalactic medium, but it remains a general tool applicable in other contexts.