Enhancing photometric redshift catalogs through color-space analysis: Application to KiDS-bright galaxies

¹ Center for Theoretical Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Al. Lotników 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland
² Ruhr University Bochum, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Astronomical Institute (AIRUB), German Centre for Cosmological Lensing, 44780 Bochum, Germany
³ Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands
⁴ Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
⁵ Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), Av. Complutense 40, E-28040 Madrid, Spain
⁶ Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation, Dennis Sciama Building, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 3FX, UK
⁷ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
⁸ Donostia International Physics Center, Manuel Lardizabal Ibilbidea, 4, 20018 Donostia, Gipuzkoa, Spain
⁹ Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
¹⁰ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Via dell’Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy

^⋆ Corresponding author; priyajalan14@gmail.com, pjalan@cft.edu.pl

Received: 30 September 2024
Accepted: 31 October 2024

Abstract

Aims. We present a method for refining photometric redshift galaxy catalogs based on a comparison of their color-space matching with overlapping spectroscopic calibration data. We focus on cases where photometric redshifts (photo-z) are estimated empirically. Identifying galaxies that are poorly represented in spectroscopic data is crucial, as their photo-z may be unreliable due to extrapolation beyond the training sample.

Methods. Our approach uses a self-organizing map (SOM) to project a multidimensional parameter space of magnitudes and colors onto a 2D manifold, allowing us to analyze the resulting patterns as a function of various galaxy properties. Using SOM, we compared the Kilo-Degree Survey’s bright galaxy sample (KiDS-Bright), limited to r < 20 mag, with various spectroscopic samples, including the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA).

Results. Our analysis reveals that GAMA tends to underrepresent KiDS-Bright at its faintest (r ≳ 19.5) and highest-redshift (z ≳ 0.4) ranges; however, no strong trends are seen in terms of color or stellar mass. By incorporating additional spectroscopic data from the SDSS, 2dF, and early DESI, we identified SOM cells where the photo-z values are estimated suboptimally. We derived a set of SOM-based criteria to refine the photometric sample and improve photo-z statistics. For the KiDS-Bright sample, this improvement is modest, namely, it excludes the least represented 20% of the sample reduces photo-z scatter by less than 10%.

Conclusions. We conclude that GAMA, used for KiDS-Bright photo-z training, is sufficiently representative for reliable redshift estimation across most of the color space. Future spectroscopic data from surveys such as DESI should be better suited for exploiting the full improvement potential of our method.