The standard single-frequency detection methods for point sources in the CMB and far IR are based on wavelet techniques (Vielva et al. 2003; Barnard et al. 2004; González-Nuevo et al. 2006) or on the matched filter (or MF hereafter, Tegmark & de Oliveira-Costa 1998; Herranz et al. 2002; Barreiro et al. 2003; López-Caniego et al. 2006, see also Herranz & Vielva 2010 for a review.). Wavelets are well suited for the detection of compact sources due to their good position-scale determination properties, whereas the MF is the optimal linear detector-estimator because it provides the maximum signal-to-noise (S/N) amplification for a source with a known shape (usually the point-spread function, or PSF hereafter, of the telescope) embedded in statistically homogeneous and spatially correlated noise. By default, these techniques are applicable only to single-frequency sky images: even for multiwavelength observatories such as the Herschel Space Observatory (Pilbratt et al. 2010) or Planck (Tauber et al. 2010), the standard detection pipelines have produced individual source catalogs for each frequency band (see e.g., Planck Collaboration VII 2011; Planck Collaboration XXVIII 2014; Planck Collaboration XXVI 2016; Maddox et al. 2018). The next logical step is to boost the signal of faint sources by combining the different bands into a single detection, that is, “multifrequency detection”. Most of the blind component separation algorithms that are used for diffuse components in microwave and far IR astronomy can not deal with the high diversity of spectral behaviors associated to the different populations of extragalactic compact sources (see for example Leach et al. 2008). However, over the last few years a number of multifrequency compact source detection techniques have been proposed in the literature (Herranz & Sanz 2008; Herranz et al. 2009; Lanz et al. 2010, 2013; Planck Collaboration Int. LIV 2018). A review on the topic can be found in Herranz et al. (2012). In particular, if the spatial profile and the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the sources are known, and if the cross-power spectrum is known, or can be estimated from the data, the optimal linear detection method is the matched multifilter (or MMF hereafter, Herranz et al. 2002). Lanz et al. (2010) also showed that the MMF can be generalized for the case where the SED of the sources is not known. This generalization outperforms the single-frequency MF in terms of S/N and can be used to infer the spectral index of synchrotron-dominated radio sources, as shown in Lanz et al. (2013). However, in this paper we will incorporate a specific SED to the MMF in order to derive a photometric redshift estimation of dusty galaxies and high-redshift star forming galaxies detected in the IR part of the spectrum1. We will do so by applying the multifrequency MMF filter to the first and second data releases of the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (the Herschel-ATLAS or H-ATLAS, Eales et al. 2010), the largest single key project carried out in open time with the Herschel Space Observatory. We restrict our multifrequency analysis to the three wavelength bands covered by the SPIRE instrument aboard Herschel (Griffin et al. 2010), centered around 250, 350 and 500 μm. As discussed in Hopwood et al. (2010), Lapi et al. (2011), González-Nuevo et al. (2012), Pearson et al. (2013) and Donevski et al. (2018), the SPIRE bands are ideal for capturing the peak in the SED corresponding to dust emission of star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 2, that is redshifted from its rest-frame wavelength around 70–100 μm to the SPIRE wavelengths: This is the redshift range where galaxies have formed most of their stars. At higher redshifts, dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) occupy the most massive halos and are among the most luminous objects found at z ≳ 4 (Michałowski et al. 2014; Oteo et al. 2016; Ikarashi et al. 2017). These high-redshift DSFGs have markedly red colors as seen by SPIRE, with rising flux densities from 250 to 500 μm (the so-called “500 μm-risers”), and have received a great deal of attention in the recent years (see for example Ivison et al. 2016; Negrello et al. 2017; Strandet et al. 2017). The DSFGs, and particularly the 500 μm risers uncovered by Herschel, are providing much insight into the early star forming history of the universe. However, sensitivity and limited angular resolution severely constrain the power of this type of objects as astrophysical probes. The sensitivity of SPIRE allows for the direct detection of only the brightest, and thus rarest objects, at the bright end of the luminosity function. By means of our multifrequency MMF technique, we intend to enhance the detectability and statistical significance of very faint red objects in the H-ATLAS source catalog and so expand the list of reliable 500 μm-riser candidates.
Citation: Lanz et al. 2010
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Citation: Lanz et al. (2010)
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Citation: Maddox et al. 2018
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Citation: Herranz et al. 2009
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