Surface Brightness Bias in the Shape Statistics of High-Redshift Galaxies

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Loeb, Abraham
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Loeb, Abraham
author_facet Loeb, Abraham
contents Recently, Pandya et al. (2023) argued that the shapes of dwarf galaxies in JWST-CEERS observations show a prolate fraction that rises from ~25% at redshifts z=0.5-1 to ~50-80% at z=3-8. Here we suggest that this apparent change could result from a surface-brightness bias, favoring the detection of edge-on disks at low-luminosities and high-redshifts. Changing edge-on projections with an axis ratio of 10 to a face-on orientation reduces their apparent surface brightness by 2.5 magnitude per arcsec$^2$ and could shift a substantial fraction of the observed galaxies below the detection limit.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_03592
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Surface Brightness Bias in the Shape Statistics of High-Redshift Galaxies
Loeb, Abraham
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Recently, Pandya et al. (2023) argued that the shapes of dwarf galaxies in JWST-CEERS observations show a prolate fraction that rises from ~25% at redshifts z=0.5-1 to ~50-80% at z=3-8. Here we suggest that this apparent change could result from a surface-brightness bias, favoring the detection of edge-on disks at low-luminosities and high-redshifts. Changing edge-on projections with an axis ratio of 10 to a face-on orientation reduces their apparent surface brightness by 2.5 magnitude per arcsec$^2$ and could shift a substantial fraction of the observed galaxies below the detection limit.
title Surface Brightness Bias in the Shape Statistics of High-Redshift Galaxies
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.03592