A holistic exploration of the potentially recoverable redshift information of Stage IV galaxy surveys

TL;DR

This paper assesses how combining multi-wavelength photometric data from upcoming galaxy surveys can enhance redshift information recovery, using an information theoretic approach that avoids reliance on specific estimators or priors.

Contribution

It introduces a generic, estimator- and prior-free method to quantify the potentially recoverable redshift information from combined survey data, including UV, optical, and infrared.

Findings

UV photometry can improve redshift estimates for certain galaxy populations.

Adding UV data has limited benefits for galaxies with low detection probabilities at higher wavelengths.

The approach can guide survey design and data combination strategies.

Abstract

Extragalactic science and cosmology with Stage IV galaxy surveys will rely almost exclusively on redshift measurements derived solely from photometry, which are subject to systematic and statistical uncertainties with numerous analysis choices, such as that of an estimator and prior information and no universal solution. Single-survey photometric redshift estimates ought to be improved by combining data from multiple surveys, with common wisdom asserting that optical data benefits from additional infrared coverage but not from additional ultraviolet coverage. The degree of improvement for either case is not well-characterized and attempts to quantify it necessitate assumptions of a chosen estimator and its prior information. We apply an information theoretic metric of potentially recoverable redshift information to assess the impact of multi-survey photometry combinations without assuming an estimator nor priors in the context of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) in the optical, Roman and Euclid Surveys in the infrared, and Cosmological Advanced Survey Telescope for Optical-UV Research (CASTOR) in the ultraviolet. We conclude that the addition of UV photometry can benefit redshift determination of certain galaxy populations, but that gain is tempered by their decreased chance of meeting detection criteria at higher wavelengths. We explore the spectral energy distribution (SEDs) of galaxies whose potentially recoverable redshift information is most impacted by additional photometry to provide a basis for future evaluation of which science cases may motivate which combinations. The holistic assessment approach we develop here is generic and may be applied to quantify the impact of combining photometric datasets, changing experimental design choices, including observing strategy optimization, and evaluating systematics mitigation procedures.