Search

We introduce a new method to estimate the probability that an extragalactic transient source is associated with a candidate host galaxy. This approach relies solely on simple observables: sky coordinates and their uncertainties, galaxy fluxes, and angular sizes. The formalism invokes Bayes' rule to calculate the posterior probability from the galaxy prior P(O), observables x, and an assumed model for the true distribution of transients in/around their host galaxies. Using simulated transients placed in the well-studied Cosmic Evolution Survey field, we consider several agnostic and physically motivated priors and offset distributions to explore the method sensitivity. We then apply the methodology to the set of 13 fast radio bursts (FRBs) localized with an uncertainty of several arcseconds. Our methodology finds nine of these are securely associated to a single host galaxy,. We examine the observed and intrinsic properties of these secure FRB hosts, recovering distributions similar to those found in previous works. Furthermore, we find a strong correlation between the apparent magnitude of the securely identified host galaxies and the estimated cosmic dispersion measures of the corresponding FRBs, which results from the Macquart relation. Future work with FRBs will leverage this relation and other measures from the secure hosts as priors for future associations. The methodology is generic to transient type, localization error, and image quality. We encourage its application to other transients where host galaxy associations are critical to the science, e.g., gravitational wave events, gamma-ray bursts, and supernovae. We have encoded the technique in Python on GitHub: https://github.com/FRBs/astropath. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present photometric redshifts and associated probability distributions for all detected sources in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS). This work makes use of the most up-to-date data from the Cosmic Assembly Near-IR Deep Legacy Survey (CANDELS) and the Taiwan ECDFS Near-Infrared Survey (TENIS) in addition to other data. We also revisit multi-wavelength counterparts for published X-ray sources from the 4 Ms CDFS and 250 ks ECDFS surveys, finding reliable counterparts for 1207 out of 1259 sources (∼96%). Data used for photometric redshifts include intermediate-band photometry deblended using the TFIT method, which is used for the first time in this work. Photometric redshifts for X-ray source counterparts are based on a new library of active galactic nuclei/galaxy hybrid templates appropriate for the faint X-ray population in the CDFS. Photometric redshift accuracy for normal galaxies is 0.010 and for X-ray sources is 0.014 and outlier fractions are 4% and 5.2%, respectively. The results within the CANDELS coverage area are even better, as demonstrated both by spectroscopic comparison and by galaxy-pair statistics. Intermediate-band photometry, even if shallow, is valuable when combined with deep broadband photometry. For best accuracy, templates must include emission lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object cross-identification in multiple observations is often complicated by the uncertainties in their astrometric calibration. Due to the lack of standard reference objects, an image with a small field of view can have significantly larger errors in its absolute positioning than the relative precision of the detected sources within. We present a new general solution for the relative astrometry that quickly refines the World Coordinate System of overlapping fields. The efficiency is obtained through the use of infinitesimal three-dimensional rotations on the celestial sphere, which do not involve trigonometric functions. They also enable an analytic solution to an important step in making the astrometric corrections. In cases with many overlapping images, the correct identification of detections that match together across different images is difficult to determine. We describe a new greedy Bayesian approach for selecting the best object matches across a large number of overlapping images. The methods are developed and demonstrated on the Hubble Legacy Archive, one of the most challenging data sets today. We describe a novel catalog compiled from many Hubble Space Telescope observations, where the detections are combined into a searchable collection of matches that link the individual detections. The matches provide descriptions of astronomical objects involving multiple wavelengths and epochs. High relative positional accuracy of objects is achieved across the Hubble images, often sub-pixel precision in the order of just a few milliarcseconds. The result is a reliable set of high-quality associations that are publicly available online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]