The impact of spectroscopic incompleteness in direct calibration of redshift distributions for weak lensing surveys

W. G. Hartley; C. Chang; S. Samani; A. Carnero Rosell; T. M. Davis; B. Hoyle; D. Gruen; J. Asorey; J. Gschwend; C. Lidman; K. Kuehn; A. King; M. M. Rau; R. H. Wechsler; J. DeRose; S. R. Hinton; L. Whiteway; T. M. C. Abbott; M. Aguena; S. Allam; J. Annis; S. Avila; G. M. Bernstein; E. Bertin; S. L. Bridle; D. Brooks; D. L. Burke; M. Carrasco Kind; J. Carretero; F. J. Castander; R. Cawthon; M. Costanzi; L. N. da Costa; S. Desai; H. T. Diehl; J. P. Dietrich; B. Flaugher; P. Fosalba; J. Frieman; J. Garcia-Bellido; E. Gaztanaga; D. W. Gerdes; R. A. Gruendl; G. Gutierrez; D. L. Hollowood; K. Honscheid; D. J. James; S. Kent; E. Krause; N. Kuropatkin; O. Lahav; M. Lima; M. A. G. Maia; J. L. Marshall; P. Melchior; F. Menanteau; R. Miquel; R. L. C. Ogando; A. Palmese; F. Paz-Chinchon; A. A. Plazas; A. Roodman; E. S. Rykoff; E. Sanchez; Scarpine; M. Schubnell; S. Serrano; Sevilla-Noarbe; M. Smith; M. Soares-Santos; E. Suchyta; G. Tarle; M. A. Troxel; D. L. Tucker; T. N. Varga; J. Weller; R. D. Wilkinson; DES Collaboration

doi:10.1093/mnras/staa1812

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The impact of spectroscopic incompleteness in direct calibration of redshift distributions for weak lensing surveys

Journal article

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The impact of spectroscopic incompleteness in direct calibration of redshift distributions for weak lensing surveys

W. G. Hartley, C. Chang, S. Samani, A. Carnero Rosell, T. M. Davis, B. Hoyle, D. Gruen, J. Asorey, J. Gschwend, C. Lidman, …

Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol.496(4), pp.4769-4786

08/01/2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa1812

Abstract

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Science & Technology

Physical Sciences

Obtaining accurate distributions of galaxy redshifts is a critical aspect of weak lensing cosmology experiments. One of the methods used to estimate and validate redshift distributions is to apply weights to a spectroscopic sample, so that their weighted photometry distribution matches the target sample. In this work, we estimate the selection bias in redshift that is introduced in this procedure. We do so by simulating the process of assembling a spectroscopic sample (including observer-assigned confidence flags) and highlight the impacts of spectroscopic target selection and redshift failures. We use the first year (Y1) weak lensing analysis in Dark Energy Survey (DES) as an example data set but the implications generalize to all similar weak lensing surveys. We find that using colour cuts that are not available to the weak lensing galaxies can introduce biases of up to Delta z similar to 0.04 in the weighted mean redshift of different redshift intervals (Delta z similar to 0.015 in the case most relevant to DES). To assess the impact of incompleteness in spectroscopic samples, we select only objects with high observer-defined confidence flags and compare the weighted mean redshift with the true mean. We find that the mean redshift of the DES Y1 weak lensing sample is typically biased at the Delta z = 0.005-0.05 level after the weighting is applied. The bias we uncover can have either sign, depending on the samples and redshift interval considered. For the highest redshift bin, the bias is larger than the uncertainties in the other DES Y1 redshift calibration methods, justifying the decision of not using this method for the redshift estimations. We discuss several methods to mitigate this bias.

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Title: The impact of spectroscopic incompleteness in direct calibration of redshift distributions for weak lensing surveys
Creators: W. G. Hartley - ETH Zurich
C. Chang - University of Chicago
S. Samani - University College London
A. Carnero Rosell - Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas
T. M. Davis - The University of Queensland
B. Hoyle - Max Planck Inst Extraterr Phys, Giessenbachstr, D-85748 Garching, Germany
D. Gruen - Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
J. Asorey - Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas
J. Gschwend - Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia
C. Lidman - Australian National University
K. Kuehn - Lowell Observatory
A. King - The University of Queensland
M. M. Rau - Carnegie Mellon University
R. H. Wechsler - Stanford University
J. DeRose - University of California, Berkeley
S. R. Hinton - The University of Queensland
L. Whiteway - University College London
T. M. C. Abbott - Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
M. Aguena - Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia
S. Allam - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
J. Annis - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
S. Avila - Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
G. M. Bernstein - Univ Penn, Dept Phys & Astron, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
E. Bertin - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
S. L. Bridle - University of Manchester
D. Brooks - University College London
D. L. Burke - Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
M. Carrasco Kind - National Center for Supercomputing Applications
J. Carretero - Institute for High Energy Physics
F. J. Castander - Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya
R. Cawthon - University of Wisconsin–Madison
M. Costanzi - Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe
L. N. da Costa - Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia
S. Desai - Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad
H. T. Diehl - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
J. P. Dietrich - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
B. Flaugher - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
P. Fosalba - Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya
J. Frieman - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
J. Garcia-Bellido - Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
E. Gaztanaga - Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya
D. W. Gerdes - University of Michigan
R. A. Gruendl - National Center for Supercomputing Applications
G. Gutierrez - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
D. L. Hollowood - University of California, Santa Cruz
K. Honscheid - The Ohio State University
D. J. James - Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian
S. Kent - Univ Chicago, Kavli Inst Cosmol Phys, Chicago, IL 60637 USA
E. Krause - University of Arizona
N. Kuropatkin - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
O. Lahav - University College London
M. Lima - Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia
M. A. G. Maia - Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia
J. L. Marshall - Mitchell Institute
P. Melchior - Princeton University
F. Menanteau - National Center for Supercomputing Applications
R. Miquel - Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats
R. L. C. Ogando - Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia
A. Palmese - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
F. Paz-Chinchon - National Center for Supercomputing Applications
A. A. Plazas - Princeton University
A. Roodman - SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
E. S. Rykoff - Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
E. Sanchez - Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas
Scarpine - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
M. Schubnell - University of Michigan
S. Serrano - Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya
Sevilla-Noarbe - Ctr Invest Energet Medioambientales & Tecnol CIEM, Madrid 28040, Spain
M. Smith - University of Southampton
M. Soares-Santos - Brandeis University, Martin A. Fisher School of Physics
E. Suchyta - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
G. Tarle - Institute for High Energy Physics
M. A. Troxel - Duke University
D. L. Tucker - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
T. N. Varga - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
J. Weller - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
R. D. Wilkinson - University of Sussex
DES Collaboration
Publication Details: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol.496(4), pp.4769-4786
Publisher: Oxford Univ Press
Number of pages: 18
Grant note: European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013); European Research Council (ERC) University of Edinburgh University of Chicago ST/T000414/1; ST/R000476/1; ST/T003081/1; ST/R000433/1; ST/I000879/1 / STFC; UK Research & Innovation (UKRI); Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) ST/R000476/1; ST/I000879/1 / Science and Technology Facilities Council; UK Research & Innovation (UKRI); Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) U.S. Department of Energy; United States Department of Energy (DOE) Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; United States Department of Energy (DOE) Ministerio da Ciencia, Tecnologia e Inovacao; Spanish Government Ministry of Science and Education of Spain; Spanish Government
Identifiers: 9924552851401921
Academic Unit: Martin A. Fisher School of Physics
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

The impact of spectroscopic incompleteness in direct calibration of redshift distributions for weak lensing surveys

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