Abstract
The statistical power of weak lensing measurements is principally driven by the number of high-redshift galaxies whose shapes are resolved. Conventional wisdom and physical intuition suggest this is optimized by deep imaging at long (red or near-IR) wavelengths, to avoid losing redshifted Balmer-break and Lyman-break galaxies. We use the synthetic Emission Line (“EL”)-COSMOS catalog to simulate lensing observations using different filters, from various altitudes. Here were predict the number of exposures to achieve a target z ≳ 0.3 source density, using off-the-shelf and custom filters. Ground-based observations are easily better at red wavelengths, as (more narrowly) are space-based observations. However, we find that SuperBIT, a diffraction-limited observatory operating in the stratosphere, should instead perform its lensing-quality observations at blue wavelengths.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Article number | 245 |
Journal | Astronomical Journal |
Volume | 164 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2022 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science