Going Forward with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Transient Survey: Validation of Precision Forward-Modeling Photometry for Undersampled Imaging

TL;DR

This paper validates a forward-modeling photometry method for the Roman Space Telescope's undersampled imaging, demonstrating millimagnitude accuracy suitable for precise supernova cosmology measurements.

Contribution

It introduces and validates a scene-modeling code for supernova photometry in Roman's undersampled images using realistic simulations.

Findings

Achieves millimagnitude bias levels in red filters meeting calibration requirements

Demonstrates the method's effectiveness with over 760,000 simulated image cutouts

Shows larger biases in the bluer filter but still within acceptable limits.

Abstract

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) is an observatory for both wide-field observations and coronagraphy that is scheduled for launch in the mid 2020's. Part of the planned survey is a deep, cadenced field or fields that enable cosmological measurements with type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). With a pixel scale of 0".11, the Wide Field Instrument will be undersampled, presenting a difficulty for precisely subtracting the galaxy light underneath the SNe. We use simulated data to validate the ability of a forward-model code (such codes are frequently also called "scene-modeling" codes) to perform precision supernova photometry for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope SN survey. Our simulation includes over 760,000 image cutouts around SNe Ia or host galaxies (~ 10% of a full-scale survey). To have a realistic 2D distribution of underlying galaxy light, we use the VELA simulated high-resolution images of galaxies. We run each set of cutouts through our forward-modeling code which automatically measures time-dependent SN fluxes. Given our assumed inputs of a perfect model of the instrument PSFs and calibration, we find biases at the millimagnitude level from this method in four red filters (Y106, J129, H158, and F184), easily meeting the 0.5% Roman inter-filter calibration requirement for a cutting-edge measurement of cosmological parameters using SNe Ia. Simulated data in the bluer Z087 filter shows larger ~ 2--3 millimagnitude biases, also meeting this requirement, but with more room for improvement. Our forward-model code has been released on Zenodo.