Bibcode
Quintana, J. M.; Moles, M.; Prada, F.; Martínez, V. J.; Infante, L.; Delgado, R. M. González; Fernández-Soto, A.; Cerviño, M.; Cepa, J.; Castander, F. J.; Broadhurst, T.; Cabrera-Caño, J.; Alfaro, E.; Aparicio-Villegas, T.; Caldwell, C.; Benítez, N.; Cristóbal-Hornillos, D.; Viironen, K.; Husillos, C.; Pérez-García, A. M.; Molino, A.; Jiménez-Teja, Y.; López-Sanjuan, C.; Ascaso, B.; Aguerri, J. A. L.; Simpson, C.; Perea, J.; Olmo, A. del; Masegosa, J.; Márquez, I.; Pović, M.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 453, Issue 2, p.1644-1668
Advertised on:
10
2015
Citations
21
Refereed citations
18
Description
We consistently analyse for the first time the impact of survey depth
and spatial resolution on the most used morphological parameters for
classifying galaxies through non-parametric methods: Abraham and
Conselice-Bershady concentration indices, Gini, M20 moment of light,
asymmetry, and smoothness. Three different non-local data sets are used,
Advanced Large Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical
(ALHAMBRA) and Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey (SXDS, examples of deep
ground-based surveys), and Cosmos Evolution Survey (COSMOS, deep
space-based survey). We used a sample of 3000 local, visually classified
galaxies, measuring their morphological parameters at their real
redshifts (z ˜ 0). Then we simulated them to match the redshift
and magnitude distributions of galaxies in the non-local surveys. The
comparisons of the two sets allow us to put constraints on the use of
each parameter for morphological classification and evaluate the
effectiveness of the commonly used morphological diagnostic diagrams.
All analysed parameters suffer from biases related to spatial resolution
and depth, the impact of the former being much stronger. When including
asymmetry and smoothness in classification diagrams, the noise effects
must be taken into account carefully, especially for ground-based
surveys. M20 is significantly affected, changing both the shape and
range of its distribution at all brightness levels. We suggest that
diagnostic diagrams based on 2-3 parameters should be avoided when
classifying galaxies in ground-based surveys, independently of their
brightness; for COSMOS they should be avoided for galaxies fainter than
F814 = 23.0. These results can be applied directly to surveys similar to
ALHAMBRA, SXDS and COSMOS, and also can serve as an upper/lower limit
for shallower/deeper ones.
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