How the spectral energy distribution and galaxy morphology constrain each other, with application to morphological selection using galaxy colours
Affiliation
Steward Observatory, University of ArizonaIssue Date
2022Keywords
Galaxies: evolutionGalaxies: stellar content
Galaxies: structure
Galaxy: formation
Methods: data analysis
Metadata
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Oxford University PressCitation
Uzeirbegovic, E., Martin, G., & Kaviraj, S. (2022). How the spectral energy distribution and galaxy morphology constrain each other, with application to morphological selection using galaxy colours. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 510(3), 3849–3857.Rights
Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
We introduce an empirical methodology to study how the spectral energy distribution (SED) and galaxy morphology constrain each other and implement this on ∼8000 galaxies from the HST CANDELS survey in the GOODS-South field. We show that the SED does constrain morphology and present a method that quantifies the strength of the link between these two quantities. Two galaxies with very similar SEDs are around three times more likely to also be morphologically similar, with SED constraining morphology most strongly for relatively massive red ellipticals. We apply our methodology to explore likely upper bounds on the efficacy of morphological selection using colour. We show that, under reasonable assumptions, colour selection is relatively ineffective at separating homogeneous morphologies. Even with the use of up to six colours for morphological selection, the average purity in the resultant morphological classes is only around 60 per cent. While the results can be improved by using the whole SED, the gains are not significant, with purity values remaining around 70 per cent or below. © 2022 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.Note
Immediate accessISSN
0035-8711Version
Final published versionae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1093/mnras/stab3715