_version_ 1866911599663513600
author Boone, K. K.
Ferguson, P. S.
Tabbutt, M.
Bechtol, K.
Cheng, T. -Y.
Drlica-Wagner, A.
Martínez-Vázquez, C. E.
Mutlu-Pakdil, B.
Abbott, T. M. C.
Alves, O.
Andrade-Oliveira, F.
Bacon, D.
Bocquet, S.
Brooks, D.
Camilleri, R.
Rosell, A. Carnero
da Costa, L. N.
Pereira, M. E. da Silva
Davis, T. M.
De Vicente, J.
Desai, S.
Doel, P.
Everett, S.
Flaugher, B.
Frieman, J.
García-Bellido, J.
Gruen, D.
Gutierrez, G.
Hinton, S. R.
Hollowood, D. L.
Honscheid, K.
James, D. J.
Kuehn, K.
Marshall, J. L.
Mena-Fernández, J.
Menanteau, F.
Miquel, R.
Myles, J.
Ogando, R. L. C.
Malagón, A. A. Plazas
Porredon, A.
Rodríguez-Monroy, M.
Sanchez, E.
Cid, D. Sanchez
Sevilla-Noarbe, I.
Smith, M.
Suchyta, E.
Swanson, M. E. C.
Vikram, V.
Weaverdyck, N.
author_facet Boone, K. K.
Ferguson, P. S.
Tabbutt, M.
Bechtol, K.
Cheng, T. -Y.
Drlica-Wagner, A.
Martínez-Vázquez, C. E.
Mutlu-Pakdil, B.
Abbott, T. M. C.
Alves, O.
Andrade-Oliveira, F.
Bacon, D.
Bocquet, S.
Brooks, D.
Camilleri, R.
Rosell, A. Carnero
da Costa, L. N.
Pereira, M. E. da Silva
Davis, T. M.
De Vicente, J.
Desai, S.
Doel, P.
Everett, S.
Flaugher, B.
Frieman, J.
García-Bellido, J.
Gruen, D.
Gutierrez, G.
Hinton, S. R.
Hollowood, D. L.
Honscheid, K.
James, D. J.
Kuehn, K.
Marshall, J. L.
Mena-Fernández, J.
Menanteau, F.
Miquel, R.
Myles, J.
Ogando, R. L. C.
Malagón, A. A. Plazas
Porredon, A.
Rodríguez-Monroy, M.
Sanchez, E.
Cid, D. Sanchez
Sevilla-Noarbe, I.
Smith, M.
Suchyta, E.
Swanson, M. E. C.
Vikram, V.
Weaverdyck, N.
contents Observations of density variations in stellar streams are a promising probe of low-mass dark matter substructure in the Milky Way. However, survey systematics such as variations in seeing and sky brightness can also induce artificial fluctuations in the observed densities of known stellar streams. These variations arise because survey conditions affect both object detection and star--galaxy misclassification rates. To mitigate these effects, we use Balrog synthetic source injections in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Y3 data to calculate detection rate variations and classification rates as functions of survey properties. We show that these rates are nearly separable with respect to survey properties and can be estimated with sufficient statistics from the synthetic catalogs. Applying these corrections reduces the standard deviation of relative detection rates across the DES footprint by a factor of five, and our corrections significantly change the inferred linear density of the Phoenix stream when including faint objects. Additionally, for artificial streams with DES like survey properties we are able to recover density power spectra with reduced bias. We also find that uncorrected power-spectrum results for LSST-like data can be around five times more biased, highlighting the need for such corrections in future ground based surveys.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_07511
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Robust Measurement of Stellar Streams Around the Milky Way: Correcting Spatially Variable Observational Selection Effects in Optical Imaging Surveys
Boone, K. K.
Ferguson, P. S.
Tabbutt, M.
Bechtol, K.
Cheng, T. -Y.
Drlica-Wagner, A.
Martínez-Vázquez, C. E.
Mutlu-Pakdil, B.
Abbott, T. M. C.
Alves, O.
Andrade-Oliveira, F.
Bacon, D.
Bocquet, S.
Brooks, D.
Camilleri, R.
Rosell, A. Carnero
da Costa, L. N.
Pereira, M. E. da Silva
Davis, T. M.
De Vicente, J.
Desai, S.
Doel, P.
Everett, S.
Flaugher, B.
Frieman, J.
García-Bellido, J.
Gruen, D.
Gutierrez, G.
Hinton, S. R.
Hollowood, D. L.
Honscheid, K.
James, D. J.
Kuehn, K.
Marshall, J. L.
Mena-Fernández, J.
Menanteau, F.
Miquel, R.
Myles, J.
Ogando, R. L. C.
Malagón, A. A. Plazas
Porredon, A.
Rodríguez-Monroy, M.
Sanchez, E.
Cid, D. Sanchez
Sevilla-Noarbe, I.
Smith, M.
Suchyta, E.
Swanson, M. E. C.
Vikram, V.
Weaverdyck, N.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Observations of density variations in stellar streams are a promising probe of low-mass dark matter substructure in the Milky Way. However, survey systematics such as variations in seeing and sky brightness can also induce artificial fluctuations in the observed densities of known stellar streams. These variations arise because survey conditions affect both object detection and star--galaxy misclassification rates. To mitigate these effects, we use Balrog synthetic source injections in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Y3 data to calculate detection rate variations and classification rates as functions of survey properties. We show that these rates are nearly separable with respect to survey properties and can be estimated with sufficient statistics from the synthetic catalogs. Applying these corrections reduces the standard deviation of relative detection rates across the DES footprint by a factor of five, and our corrections significantly change the inferred linear density of the Phoenix stream when including faint objects. Additionally, for artificial streams with DES like survey properties we are able to recover density power spectra with reduced bias. We also find that uncorrected power-spectrum results for LSST-like data can be around five times more biased, highlighting the need for such corrections in future ground based surveys.
title Robust Measurement of Stellar Streams Around the Milky Way: Correcting Spatially Variable Observational Selection Effects in Optical Imaging Surveys
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.07511