TOPz: Photometric redshifts for J-PAS

TL;DR

This paper introduces TOPz, a new template-based photometric redshift estimation method tailored for the upcoming J-PAS survey, demonstrating promising accuracy on miniJPAS data and outlining potential improvements.

Contribution

The paper presents TOPz, a novel workflow for photometric redshift estimation optimized for J-PAS, including template generation, photometric corrections, and performance evaluation.

Findings

38.6% of galaxies reach the redshift accuracy goal of dz/(1+z)<0.003.

Limiting the number of templates improves accuracy by up to 5%.

Performance on miniJPAS data aligns with expectations for J-PAS.

Abstract

The importance of photometric galaxy redshift estimation is rapidly increasing with the development of specialised powerful observational facilities. We develop a new photometric redshift estimation workflow TOPz to provide reliable and efficient redshift estimations for the upcoming large-scale survey J-PAS which will observe 8500 deg2 of the northern sky through 54 narrow-band filters. TOPz relies on template-based photo-z estimation with some added J-PAS specific features and possibilities. We present TOPz performance on data from the miniJPAS survey, a precursor to the J-PAS survey with an identical filter system. First, we generated spectral templates based on the miniJPAS sources using the synthetic galaxy spectrum generation software CIGALE. Then we applied corrections to the input photometry by minimising systematic offsets from the template flux in each filter. To assess the accuracy of the redshift estimation, we used spectroscopic redshifts from the DEEP2, DEEP3, and SDSS surveys, available for 1989 miniJPAS galaxies with r < 22 magAB. We also tested how the choice and number of input templates, photo-z priors, and photometric corrections affect the TOPz redshift accuracy. The general performance of the combination of miniJPAS data and the TOPz workflow fulfills the expectations for J-PAS redshift accuracy. Similarly to previous estimates, we find that 38.6% of galaxies with r < 22 mag reach the J-PAS redshift accuracy goal of dz/(1 + z) < 0.003. Limiting the number of spectra in the template set improves the redshift accuracy up to 5%, especially for fainter, noise-dominated sources. Further improvements will be possible once the actual J-PAS data become available.