A Fortran code for null geodesic solutions in the Lemaı̂tre–Tolman–Bondi spacetime

Abstract This paper describes the Fortran 77 code SIMU , version 1.1, designed for numerical simulations of observational relations along the past null geodesic in the Lemaitre–Tolman–Bondi (LTB) spacetime. SIMU aims at finding scale invariant solutions of the average density, but due to its full modularity it can be easily adapted to any application which requires LTB's null geodesic solutions. In version 1.1 the numerical output can be read by the GNUPLOT plotting package to produce a fully graphical output, although other plotting routines can be easily adapted. Details of the code's subroutines are discussed, and an example of its output is shown.