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The PAU Survey: early demonstration of photometric redshift performance in the COSMOS field

Eriksen, M; Alarcon, A; Gaztanaga, E; Amara, A; Cabayol, L; Carretero, J; Castander, FJ; Crocce, M; Delfino, M; De Vicente, J; Fernandez, E; Fosalba, P; Garcia-Bellido, J; Hildebrandt, H; Hoekstra, H; Joachimi, B; Norberg, P; Miquel, R; Padilla, C; Refregier, A; Sanchez, E; Serrano, S; Sevilla-Noarbe, I; Tallada, P; Tonello, N; Tortorelli, L

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Authors

M Eriksen

A Alarcon

E Gaztanaga

A Amara

L Cabayol

J Carretero

FJ Castander

M Crocce

M Delfino

J De Vicente

E Fernandez

P Fosalba

J Garcia-Bellido

H Hildebrandt

H Hoekstra

B Joachimi

R Miquel

C Padilla

A Refregier

E Sanchez

S Serrano

I Sevilla-Noarbe

P Tallada

N Tonello

L Tortorelli



Abstract

The Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS) is an innovative photometric survey with 40 narrow-bands at the William Herschel Telescope (WHT). The narrow-bands are spaced at 100 Å intervals covering the range 4500–8500 Å and, in combination with standard broad-bands, enable excellent redshift precision. This paper describes the technique, galaxy templates, and additional photometric calibration used to determine early photometric redshifts from PAUS. Using BCNZ2, a new photometric redshift code developed for this purpose, we characterize the photometric redshift performance using PAUS data on the COSMOS field. Comparison to secure spectra from zCOSMOS DR3 shows that PAUS achieves σ68/(1 + z⁠) = 0.0037 to iAB < 22.5 for the redshift range 0 < z < 1.2, when selecting the best 50 per cent of the sources based on a photometric redshift quality cut. Furthermore, a higher photo-z precision [σ68/(1 + z⁠) ∼ 0.001] is obtained for a bright and high-quality selection, which is driven by the identification of emission lines. We conclude that PAUS meets its design goals, opening up a hitherto uncharted regime of deep, wide, and dense galaxy survey with precise redshifts that will provide unique insights into the formation, evolution, and clustering of galaxies, as well as their intrinsic alignments.

Citation

Eriksen, M., Alarcon, A., Gaztanaga, E., Amara, A., Cabayol, L., Carretero, J., …Tortorelli, L. (2019). The PAU Survey: early demonstration of photometric redshift performance in the COSMOS field. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 484(3), 4200-4215. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz204

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 11, 2019
Online Publication Date Jan 18, 2019
Publication Date Apr 30, 2019
Deposit Date Apr 11, 2019
Publicly Available Date Apr 11, 2019
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 484
Issue 3
Pages 4200-4215
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz204

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Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.





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