3–11 Jul 2025
University of Adelaide
Australia/Adelaide timezone
Please note: Timetable for sparklers is still provisional!

Assessing photometric redshift accuracy and parameter estimation with limited photometric coverage using CIGALE

7 Jul 2025, 14:43
1m
Scott Theatre (University of Adelaide)

Scott Theatre

University of Adelaide

Poster Poster

Speaker

Vanessa Porchet (Queensland University of Technology)

Description

Redshifts are crucial for nearly all extragalactic and cosmological studies. Upcoming wide-field surveys, such as the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU), will catalogue millions of sources, making spectroscopic follow-ups unfeasible at scale. Though sensitive to band selection and availability, photometry yields redshifts (photo-$\textit{z}$s) for fainter sources while optimising telescope time. Using the extensive FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey and spectroscopic redshifts (z$_{\text{spec}}$) for calibration, we employ the Bayesian SED-fitting tool CIGALE to derive photo-$\textit{z}$s up to z ~ 3 and assess their accuracy with limited data. By systematically reducing bands, we compare NMAD values between full and reduced-band fits to identify the minimal bandset for reliable estimates. We then examine the impact on stellar mass and star formation history derivation by analysing deviations from best-fit mock analyses and apply our findings to crossmatched EMU datasets. We find that photo-$\textit{z}$s from 6 well-spaced optical to mid-IR bands remain robust compared to full-band (> 27 bands) estimates, reaching accuracies of NMAD$_{full}$ = 0.013 with η = 1.46% catastrophic errors and NMAD$_{6bands}$ = 0.038, η = 2.55%. We derive reliable parameters using our minimal bandset, though our reduced framework performs best in a redshift range 0 < z < 1.5. Here, we discuss how these results optimise scientific return for single-point EMU radio sources with sparse overlapping data and outline the broader potential of minimal-band SED fitting.

Author

Vanessa Porchet (Queensland University of Technology)

Presentation materials