Photometric Redshift Error Estimators

Photometric redshift (photo-z) estimates are playing an increasingly important role in extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. Crucial to many photo-z applications is the accurate quantification of photometric redshift errors and their distributions, including identification of likely catastrophic fa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2008-12, Vol.689 (2), p.709-720
Main Authors: Oyaizu, Hiroaki, Lima, Marcos, Cunha, Carlos E, Lin, Huan, Frieman, Joshua
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
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Summary:Photometric redshift (photo-z) estimates are playing an increasingly important role in extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. Crucial to many photo-z applications is the accurate quantification of photometric redshift errors and their distributions, including identification of likely catastrophic failures in photo-z estimates. We consider several methods of estimating photo-z errors, and propose new training-set based error estimators based on spectroscopic training set data. Using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and simulations of the Dark Energy Survey as examples, we show that this method provides a robust, relatively unbiased estimate of photo-z errors. We show that culling objects with large, accurately estimated photo-z errors from a sample can reduce the incidence of catastrophic photo-z failures.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1086/592591