galsbi: A Python package for the GalSBI galaxy population model

TL;DR

GalSBI is a Python package that models galaxy populations using observational data and simulation-based inference, aiding large-scale structure survey analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a phenomenological galaxy population model constrained by data, with an accessible Python package for catalog and image simulation.

Findings

Provides realistic galaxy catalogs for survey analysis

Enables efficient simulation of galaxy images

Facilitates calibration and analysis of large datasets

Abstract

Large-scale structure surveys measure the shapes and positions of millions of galaxies in order to constrain the cosmological model with high precision. The resulting large data volume poses a challenge for the analysis of the data, from the estimation of photometric redshifts to the calibration of shape measurements. We present GalSBI, a model for the galaxy population, to address these challenges. This phenomenological model is constrained by observational data using simulation-based inference (SBI). The $\texttt{galsbi}$ Python package provides an easy interface to generate catalogs of galaxies based on the GalSBI model, including their photometric properties, and to simulate realistic images of these galaxies using the $\texttt{UFig}$ package.