Instruct: Identify the main and secondary category of Arxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: An Ultra Fast Image Generator (UFig) for wide-field astronomy   Simulated wide-field images are becoming an important part of observational
astronomy, either to prepare for new surveys or to test measurement methods. In
order to efficiently explore vast parameter spaces, the computational speed of
simulation codes is a central requirement to their implementation. We introduce
the Ultra Fast Image Generator (UFig) which aims to bring wide-field imaging
simulations to the current limits of computational capabilities. We achieve
this goal through: (1) models of galaxies, stars and observational conditions,
which, while simple, capture the key features necessary for realistic
simulations, and (2) state-of-the-art computational and implementation
optimizations. We present the performances of UFig and show that it is faster
than existing public simulation codes by several orders of magnitude. It allows
us to produce images more quickly than SExtractor needs to analyze them. For
instance, it can simulate a typical 0.25 deg^2 Subaru SuprimeCam image (10k x
8k pixels) with a 5-sigma limiting magnitude of R=26 in 30 seconds on a laptop,
yielding an average simulation time for a galaxy of 30 microseconds. This code
is complementary to end-to-end simulation codes and can be used as a fast,
central component of observational methods relying on simulations.

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The categories of this paper are: eess
12
The categories of this paper are: nucl-th
1
The categories of this paper are: cs
30
The categories of this paper are: q-alg
10
The categories of this paper are: q-bio
23
The categories of this paper are: solv-int
28
The categories of this paper are: alg-geom
35
The categories of this paper are: mtrl-th
7
The categories of this paper are: hep-th
13
The categories of this paper are: quant-ph
34
The categories of this paper are: chem-ph
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The categories of this paper are: dg-ga
29
The categories of this paper are: funct-an
3
The categories of this paper are: physics
5
The categories of this paper are: gr-qc
36
The categories of this paper are: cmp-lg