Photometric Redshift Pipeline for the J-PAS & A-PLUS/T80N+S surveys

• Grant number: 15/14021-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: August 01, 2015
• End date: February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Extragalactic Astrophysics
• Principal Investigator: Claudia Lucia Mendes de Oliveira
• Grantee: Alberto Molino Benito
• Supervisor: Andres Javier Cenarro Lagunas
• Host Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 14/11806-9 - Challenges for the new generation of wide-field photometric redshift surveys like J-PAS, BP.PD

Abstract

The J-PAS (Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerated Universe Astrophysical Survey; Benítez, N., Dupke, et al. 2014) represents the largest and most accurate photometric redshift survey ever undertaken. This project, leaded by Brazilian and Spanish institutions, is considered one of the few "new generation" photometric survey (Stage-IV). Although the main scientific case is to carry out an unprecedented measurement of the radial BAO (Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations) to prove the validity of the current and mostly accepted cosmological model (›CDM), due to the combination of three telescopes (T250 & T80N from the OAJ in Spain and T80S from CTIO in Chile), a sophisticated narrow/broad band photometric filter system and a observational area of >8500 squared degrees of sky, J-PAS will produce the largest astronomical database up to date, providing spectro-photometric measurements and photometric distance estimations for >500 million galaxies, >100 million QSO and >200 million Milky Way stars. By means of its superb scientific design, J-PAS will produce high-impact scientific results on every astronomical area; from analysis of the halo stellar populations in the Milky Way to accurate measurements of several cosmological parameters such as ©› (Dark Energy) or Dark Matter: (©M) passing through galaxy evolution analysis up to redshift ~1. J-PAS will surely revolutionize the state-of-the-art vision of modern astronomy.The design and elaboration of a photometric redshift pipeline capable to produce so extremely accurate distance estimations for all galaxies represents a major technical challenges for J-PAS since most of its science cases rely precisely on these redshift estimations. As proved for the ALHAMBRA survey (Moles et al. 2008, Molino et al. 2014), which is the natural predecessor of J-PAS, the acquisition of a highly homogeneous photometry (in terms of PSF) for thousand of images gathered in different periods and under different wavelength ranges, a careful calibration of the photometric zero-points along with a self-consistent (relative and absolute) verification of the output photometric redshifts represents the real bottleneck of the project. Working with Javier Cenarro (PI of OAJ) and his cosmology-group at CEFCA (Spain) would not only guarantee the success of the design, develop and verification of the most advance photometric redshift pipeline but also guarantee the success of the J-PAS project itself.