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Title: Characterizing the target selection pipeline for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Bright Galaxy Survey

Abstract

We present the steps taken to produce a reliable and complete input galaxy catalogue for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) using the photometric Legacy Survey DR8 DECam. We analyse some of the main issues faced in the selection of targets for the DESI BGS, such as star–galaxy separation, contamination by fragmented stars and bright galaxies. Our pipeline utilizes a new way to select BGS galaxies using Gaia photometry and we implement geometrical and photometric masks that reduce the number of spurious objects. The resulting catalogue is cross-matched with the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to assess the completeness of the galaxy catalogue and the performance of the target selection. We also validate the clustering of the sources in our BGS catalogue by comparing with mock catalogues and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data. Finally, the robustness of the BGS selection criteria is assessed by quantifying the dependence of the target galaxy density on imaging and other properties. The largest systematic correlation we find is a 7 percent suppression of the target density in regions of high stellar density.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [5];  [6];  [7]; ORCiD logo [8]; ORCiD logo [9];  [10];  [11];  [12];  [13];  [14];  [15];  [16];  [17];  [18] more »;  [9] « less
  1. Institute for Computational Cosmology, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK, Institute for Data Science, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
  2. Institute for Computational Cosmology, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
  3. Institute for Computational Cosmology, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK, Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
  4. Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
  5. NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, 950 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
  6. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
  7. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
  8. Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC), Campus UAB, Carrer de Can Magrans, s/n, E-08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
  9. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA, Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
  10. Department of Physics, Southern Methodist University, 3215 Daniel Avenue, Dallas, TX 75205, USA
  11. Department of Physics, University of California-Berkeley, 366 LeConte Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
  12. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
  13. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline Street N, Waterloo, ON N2L 2Y5, Canada, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
  14. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Siena College, 515 Loudon Road, Loudonville, NY 12211, USA
  15. University of Wyoming, 1000 E. University Ave., Laramie, WY 82071, USA
  16. Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucía, Glorieta de la Astronomía, s/n, E-18008 Granada, Spain
  17. Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
  18. Department of Astronomy and the Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, The Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT); European Research Council (ERC); Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) (United Kingdom); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1767303
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1787342; OSTI ID: 1814423; OSTI ID: 1870816
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0019022; SC002008; SC0019193; AC02-05CH11231; 297228/440775; 734374; ST/P000541/1; ST/T000244/1; AST-1616414; ST/K00042X/1; ST/P002293/1; ST/R002371/1; ST/R000832/1; AST-0950945
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Journal Volume: 502 Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; Surveys; Catalogues; large-scale structure of Universe; Galaxies

Citation Formats

Ruiz-Macias, Omar, Zarrouk, Pauline, Cole, Shaun, Baugh, Carlton M., Norberg, Peder, Lucey, John, Dey, Arjun, Eisenstein, Daniel J., Doel, Peter, Gaztañaga, Enrique, Hahn, ChangHoon, Kehoe, Robert, Kitanidis, Ellie, Landriau, Martin, Lang, Dustin, Moustakas, John, Myers, Adam D., Prada, Francisco, Schubnell, Michael, Weinberg, David H., and Wilson, M. J.. Characterizing the target selection pipeline for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Bright Galaxy Survey. United Kingdom: N. p., 2021. Web. doi:10.1093/mnras/stab292.
Ruiz-Macias, Omar, Zarrouk, Pauline, Cole, Shaun, Baugh, Carlton M., Norberg, Peder, Lucey, John, Dey, Arjun, Eisenstein, Daniel J., Doel, Peter, Gaztañaga, Enrique, Hahn, ChangHoon, Kehoe, Robert, Kitanidis, Ellie, Landriau, Martin, Lang, Dustin, Moustakas, John, Myers, Adam D., Prada, Francisco, Schubnell, Michael, Weinberg, David H., & Wilson, M. J.. Characterizing the target selection pipeline for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Bright Galaxy Survey. United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab292
Ruiz-Macias, Omar, Zarrouk, Pauline, Cole, Shaun, Baugh, Carlton M., Norberg, Peder, Lucey, John, Dey, Arjun, Eisenstein, Daniel J., Doel, Peter, Gaztañaga, Enrique, Hahn, ChangHoon, Kehoe, Robert, Kitanidis, Ellie, Landriau, Martin, Lang, Dustin, Moustakas, John, Myers, Adam D., Prada, Francisco, Schubnell, Michael, Weinberg, David H., and Wilson, M. J.. Wed . "Characterizing the target selection pipeline for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Bright Galaxy Survey". United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab292.
@article{osti_1767303,
title = {Characterizing the target selection pipeline for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Bright Galaxy Survey},
author = {Ruiz-Macias, Omar and Zarrouk, Pauline and Cole, Shaun and Baugh, Carlton M. and Norberg, Peder and Lucey, John and Dey, Arjun and Eisenstein, Daniel J. and Doel, Peter and Gaztañaga, Enrique and Hahn, ChangHoon and Kehoe, Robert and Kitanidis, Ellie and Landriau, Martin and Lang, Dustin and Moustakas, John and Myers, Adam D. and Prada, Francisco and Schubnell, Michael and Weinberg, David H. and Wilson, M. J.},
abstractNote = {We present the steps taken to produce a reliable and complete input galaxy catalogue for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) using the photometric Legacy Survey DR8 DECam. We analyse some of the main issues faced in the selection of targets for the DESI BGS, such as star–galaxy separation, contamination by fragmented stars and bright galaxies. Our pipeline utilizes a new way to select BGS galaxies using Gaia photometry and we implement geometrical and photometric masks that reduce the number of spurious objects. The resulting catalogue is cross-matched with the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to assess the completeness of the galaxy catalogue and the performance of the target selection. We also validate the clustering of the sources in our BGS catalogue by comparing with mock catalogues and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data. Finally, the robustness of the BGS selection criteria is assessed by quantifying the dependence of the target galaxy density on imaging and other properties. The largest systematic correlation we find is a 7 percent suppression of the target density in regions of high stellar density.},
doi = {10.1093/mnras/stab292},
journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
number = 3,
volume = 502,
place = {United Kingdom},
year = {Wed Feb 03 00:00:00 EST 2021},
month = {Wed Feb 03 00:00:00 EST 2021}
}

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https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab292

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