The selection function of the RAVE survey

TL;DR

This paper characterizes the RAVE survey's selection function using 2MASS data, evaluates its completeness and biases, and confirms that RAVE provides unbiased stellar parameters within certain ranges.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of RAVE's selection function and assesses its impact on derived stellar parameters, ensuring unbiased results within specified conditions.

Findings

RAVE is unbiased for stars brighter than I=12 with specific temperature and gravity ranges.

The selection function combines completeness and pipeline effects, accurately modeling the survey.

No significant biases are introduced in kinematic and chemical parameters within the defined stellar parameter space.

Abstract

We characterize the selection function of RAVE using 2MASS as our underlying population, which we assume represents all stars which could have potentially been observed. We evaluate the completeness fraction as a function of position, magnitude, and color in two ways: first, on a field-by-field basis, and second, in equal-size areas on the sky. Then, we consider the effect of the RAVE stellar parameter pipeline on the final resulting catalogue, which in principle limits the parameter space over which our selection function is valid. Our final selection function is the product of the completeness fraction and the selection function of the pipeline. We then test if the application of the selection function introduces biases in the derived parameters. To do this, we compare a parent mock catalogue generated using Galaxia with a mock-RAVE catalogue where the selection function of RAVE has been applied. We conclude that for stars brighter than I = 12, between $4000 \rm K < T_{\rm eff} < 8000 \rm K$ and $0.5 < \rm{log}\,g < 5.0$, RAVE is kinematically and chemically unbiased with respect to expectations from Galaxia.