Bayesian photometric redshifts of blended sources
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Published version
Author(s)
Jones, Daniel M
Heavens, Alan F
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Photometric redshifts are necessary for enabling large-scale multicolour galaxy surveys to interpret their data and constrain cosmological parameters. While the increased depth of future surveys such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will produce higher precision constraints, it will also increase the fraction of sources that are blended. In this paper, we present a Bayesian photometric redshift (BPZ) method for blended sources with an arbitrary number of intrinsic components. This method generalizes existing template-based BPZ methods, and produces joint posterior distributions for the component redshifts that allow uncertainties to be propagated in a principled way. Using Bayesian model comparison, we infer the probability that a source is blended and the number of components that it contains. We extend our formalism to the case where sources are blended in some bands and resolved in others. Applying this to the combination of LSST- and Euclid-like surveys, we find that the addition of resolved photometry results in a significant improvement in the reduction of outliers over the fully blended case. We make available blendz, a Python implementation of our method.
Date Issued
2019-02
Date Acceptance
2018-11-29
Citation
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2019, 483 (2), pp.2487-2505
ISSN
0035-8711
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Start Page
2487
End Page
2505
Journal / Book Title
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume
483
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society.
Sponsor
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Grant Number
1708326
Subjects
0201 Astronomical And Space Sciences
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-12-03