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statmorph-lsst: Quantifying and correcting morphological biases in galaxy surveys

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abstract

Quantitative morphology provides a key probe of galaxy evolution across cosmic time and environments. However, these metrics can be biased by changes in imaging quality - resolution and depth - either across the survey area or the sample. To prepare for the upcoming Rubin LSST data, we investigate this bias for all metrics measured by statmorph and single-component S\'ersic fitting with Galfit. We find that geometrical measurements (ellipticity, axis ratio, Petrosian radius, and effective radius) are robust within 10% at most depths and resolutions. Light concentration measurements ($C$, Gini, $M_{20}$) systematically decrease with resolution, leading low-mass or high-redshift bulge-dominated sources to appear indistinguishable from disks. S\'ersic index $n$, while unbiased, suffers from a 20-40% uncertainty due to degeneracies in the S\'ersic fit. Disturbance measurements ($A$, $A_S$, $D$) depend on signal-to-noise and are thus affected by noise and surface-brightness dimming. We quantify this dependence for each parameter, offer empirical correction functions, and show that the evolution in $C$ observed in JWST galaxies can be explained purely by observational biases. We propose two new measurements - isophotal asymmetry $A_X$ and substructure $St$ - that aim to resolve some of these biases. Finally, we provide a Python package statmorph-lsst implementing these changes and a full dataset that enables tests of custom functions (see text for links).

fields

astro-ph.GA 2

years

2026 2

representative citing papers

The Hubble sequence in JWST CEERS from unbiased galaxy morphologies

astro-ph.GA · 2026-04-09 · conditional · novelty 6.0

A Hubble-like sequence of galaxy morphologies exists by redshift 4, with low-mass galaxies as persistent star-forming disks and massive galaxies following either stable disk or rapid compaction-quenching paths.

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