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Auteurs principaux: Ren, Yiming, Chan, Kwan Chuen, Zhang, Le, Li, Yin, Zhang, Haolin, Song, Ruiyu, Gong, Yan, Meng, Xian-Min, Zhou, Xingchen
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.10032
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author Ren, Yiming
Chan, Kwan Chuen
Zhang, Le
Li, Yin
Zhang, Haolin
Song, Ruiyu
Gong, Yan
Meng, Xian-Min
Zhou, Xingchen
author_facet Ren, Yiming
Chan, Kwan Chuen
Zhang, Le
Li, Yin
Zhang, Haolin
Song, Ruiyu
Gong, Yan
Meng, Xian-Min
Zhou, Xingchen
contents Accurate photometric redshift (photo-$z$) estimation is a key challenge in cosmology, as uncertainties in photo-$z$ directly limit the scientific return of large-scale structure and weak lensing studies, especially in upcoming Stage IV surveys. The problem is particularly severe for faint galaxies with sparse spectroscopic training data. In this work, we introduce nflow-$z$, a novel photo-$z$ estimation method using the powerful machine learning technique of normalizing flow. nflow-$z$ explicitly models the redshift probability distribution conditioned on the observables such as fluxes and colors. We build two nflow-$z$ implementations, dubbed cINN and cNSF, and compare their performance. We demonstrate the effectiveness of nflow-$z$ on several datasets, including a CSST mock, the COSMOS2020 catalog, and samples from DES Y1, SDSS, and DESCaLS. Our evaluation against state-of-the-art algorithms shows that nflow-$z$ performs favorably. For instance, cNSF surpasses Random Forest, Multi-Layer Perceptron, and Convolutional Neutral Network on the CSST mock test. We also achieve a ~30% improvement over official results for the faint DESCaLS sample and outperform conditional Generative Adversarial Network and Mixture Density Network methods on the DES Y1 dataset test. Furthermore, nflow-$z$ is computationally efficient, requiring only a fraction of the computing time of some of the competing algorithms. Our algorithm is particularly effective for the faint sample with sparse training data, making it highly suitable for upcoming Stage IV surveys.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_10032
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Photo-$z$ Estimation with Normalizing Flow
Ren, Yiming
Chan, Kwan Chuen
Zhang, Le
Li, Yin
Zhang, Haolin
Song, Ruiyu
Gong, Yan
Meng, Xian-Min
Zhou, Xingchen
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Accurate photometric redshift (photo-$z$) estimation is a key challenge in cosmology, as uncertainties in photo-$z$ directly limit the scientific return of large-scale structure and weak lensing studies, especially in upcoming Stage IV surveys. The problem is particularly severe for faint galaxies with sparse spectroscopic training data. In this work, we introduce nflow-$z$, a novel photo-$z$ estimation method using the powerful machine learning technique of normalizing flow. nflow-$z$ explicitly models the redshift probability distribution conditioned on the observables such as fluxes and colors. We build two nflow-$z$ implementations, dubbed cINN and cNSF, and compare their performance. We demonstrate the effectiveness of nflow-$z$ on several datasets, including a CSST mock, the COSMOS2020 catalog, and samples from DES Y1, SDSS, and DESCaLS. Our evaluation against state-of-the-art algorithms shows that nflow-$z$ performs favorably. For instance, cNSF surpasses Random Forest, Multi-Layer Perceptron, and Convolutional Neutral Network on the CSST mock test. We also achieve a ~30% improvement over official results for the faint DESCaLS sample and outperform conditional Generative Adversarial Network and Mixture Density Network methods on the DES Y1 dataset test. Furthermore, nflow-$z$ is computationally efficient, requiring only a fraction of the computing time of some of the competing algorithms. Our algorithm is particularly effective for the faint sample with sparse training data, making it highly suitable for upcoming Stage IV surveys.
title Photo-$z$ Estimation with Normalizing Flow
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.10032