#starType Useful LaTeX macros for commonly used symbols in stellar astrophysics. Many of these macros were compiled during the preparation of the second MESA instrument paper (Paxton et al. 2013, ApJS 208: 4).

installation and usage

After cloning the project directory, cd into it and run the install script

$./install /path/to/texmf

Here the argument to the command is somewhere on the TEXPATH. For example, on my Mac, I do

$./install ~/Library/texmf

The install script creates in this texmf directory a subdirectory, tex/latex/starType, that contains starType.sty. It then builds the documentation in a subdirectory of texmf called doc/latex/starType.

To use, load the package in the preamble of the tex document,

\usepackage[<macro opts><format opts>]{starType}

where <macro opts> is a subset of code, derivatives, nuclides, symbols, units, vectors, or all. Each of these options loads the particular set of macros. The <format ops> is a subset of italicdif, poundLie, or upperConvective. These control the format of the symbols for the differential symbol, the Lie derivative, and the convective, or material, derivative. See the documentation for details. Calling starType with no options is equivalent to

\usepackage[all]{starType}

usage with mathspec

If you use XeLaTeX and mathspec, you must declare the math fonts before loading starType's vector macros, which use the bm package. For example, in my notes for stellar astrophysics, my preamble looks like

\usepackage{mathspec}
\setmainfont[Scale=MatchLowercase,Mapping=tex-text]{Minion Pro}
\setallmonofonts[Scale=MatchLowercase,Mapping=tex-text]{Menlo}
\setallsansfonts[Scale=MatchLowercase,Mapping=tex-text]{Myriad Pro}
\setmathsfont(Digits,Latin)[Scale=MatchLowercase,Mapping=tex-text]{Minion Pro}
\setmathsfont(Greek)[Scale=MatchLowercase,Mapping=tex-text]{STIXGeneral}
\setmathrm{Minion Pro}

\usepackage{starType}

macros

• st_code.tex: uses tt font for code, macros for some common codes
• st_derivatives.tex: macros for typesetting common used expressions for deriviatives
• st_nuclides.tex: macros to typset all named nuclides
• st_symbols.tex: lots of symbols for commonly used quantities in astrophysics and stellar physics
• st_units.tex: macros for typesetting units
• st_vectors.tex: macros for typesetting vector expressions

scripts

• extract_symbols.py: a lightweight python script that constructs a latex table of the macros in a given file. The output is sent to stdout as a standalone document that makes use of the fancyvrb and longtable packages.