Exploring the brighter fatter effect with the Hyper Suprime-Cam

David N. Spergel; Kendrick M. Smith; Robert Armstrong; Robert H. Lupton; William R. Coulton

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Exploring the brighter fatter effect with the Hyper Suprime-Cam

William R. Coulton, Robert Armstrong, Kendrick M. Smith, Robert H. Lupton, David N. Spergel

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Submitted 16 Nov 2017

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim We find that our correction restores the expected linear relation in the photon transfer curves and significantly reduces, but does not completely remove, the luminosity dependence of the PSF over a wide range of magnitudes.

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arXiv ID1711.06273 (version 1)

Pith IDFQIZC3LR, Pith's permanent record of this paper and its review

CitationDavid N. Spergel, Kendrick M. Smith, Robert Armstrong, Robert H. Lupton, William R. Coulton. "Exploring the brighter fatter effect with the Hyper Suprime-Cam." arXiv:1711.06273 (2017). https://pith.science/paper/FQIZC3LR

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Compiled by classifier-1.13.0 via TypeSafe API, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 5,049 input tokens.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.25 · states limitation 0.94 · human participants 0.02 · controlled comparison 0.21 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.09 · compares with prior results 0.46 · mentions code or data availability 0.04.

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The brighter fatter effect has been postulated to arise due to the build up of a transverse electric field, produced as photo-charges accumulate in the pixels' potential wells. We investigate the brighter fatter effect in Hyper Suprime-Cam by examining flat fields and moments of stars. We observe deviations from the expected linear relation in the photon transfer curve, luminosity dependent correlations between pixels in flat field images and a luminosity dependent point spread function (PSF) in stellar observations. Under the key assumptions of translation invariance and Maxwell's equations in the quasi-static limit, we give a first-principles proof that the effect can be parametrized by a translationally invariant scalar kernel. We describe how this kernel can be estimated from flat fields and discuss how this kernel has been used to remove the brighter fatter distortions in Hyper Suprime-Cam images. We find that our correction restores the expected linear relation in the photon transfer curves and significantly reduces, but does not completely remove, the luminosity dependence of the PSF over a wide range of magnitudes.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#	sentence	role	the authors' own work	states the main conclusion	strength
s0	The brighter fatter effect has been postulated to arise due to the build up of a transverse electric field, produced as photo-charges accumulate in the pixels' potential wells.	background 1.00	0.05	0.03	hedged possibility 0.68
s1	We investigate the brighter fatter effect in Hyper Suprime-Cam by examining flat fields and moments of stars.	contribution 0.53	0.94	0.03	asserted 0.90
s2	We observe deviations from the expected linear relation in the photon transfer curve, luminosity dependent correlations between pixels in flat field images and a luminosity dependent point spread function (PSF) in stellar observations.	result 0.99	0.95	0.12	asserted 1.00
s3	Under the key assumptions of translation invariance and Maxwell's equations in the quasi-static limit, we give a first-principles proof that the effect can be parametrized by a translationally invariant scalar kernel.	contribution 0.74	0.92	0.13	asserted 1.00
s4	We describe how this kernel can be estimated from flat fields and discuss how this kernel has been used to remove the brighter fatter distortions in Hyper Suprime-Cam images.	method 0.84	0.88	0.09	asserted 0.98
s5	We find that our correction restores the expected linear relation in the photon transfer curves and significantly reduces, but does not completely remove, the luminosity dependence of the PSF over a wide range of magnitudes.	result 1.00	0.96	0.73	asserted 1.00

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: empirical study 0.48 · evidence from observation or experiment 0.60.

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The paper

Original abstract

The brighter fatter effect has been postulated to arise due to the build up of a transverse electric field, produced as photo-charges accumulate in the pixels' potential wells. We investigate the brighter fatter effect in Hyper Suprime-Cam by examining flat fields and moments of stars. We observe deviations from the expected linear relation in the photon transfer curve, luminosity dependent correlations between pixels in flat field images and a luminosity dependent point spread function (PSF) in stellar observations. Under the key assumptions of translation invariance and Maxwell's equations in the quasi-static limit, we give a first-principles proof that the effect can be parametrized by a translationally invariant scalar kernel. We describe how this kernel can be estimated from flat fields and discuss how this kernel has been used to remove the brighter fatter distortions in Hyper Suprime-Cam images. We find that our correction restores the expected linear relation in the photon transfer curves and significantly reduces, but does not completely remove, the luminosity dependence of the PSF over a wide range of magnitudes.

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2 arXiv papers cite this in 3 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

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Uses its method or tool 1 paper

Before this, however, the pipeline corrects for the brighter-fatter effect by using the pixel covariances found in flat-fields to reapportion the flux, as described in [ref] .

Wavelength Dependent PSFs and their impact on Weak Lensing Measurements · HSC Data · 0.95

What it cites · 4 sentences without a confident label

Uses the method or tool of 1 paper

We use a modified version of PSFEx that has been adapted to run in the HSC pipeline whilst leaving the core of the algorithm unchanged [ref] .

The Hyper Suprime-Cam Software Pipeline · PSF Model Method · 0.89

Cites as background 1 paper

The Hyper Suprime Cam (HSC) is an instrument that has been installed on the 8.2 meter Subaru telescope in Hawaii and has recently published first year science data [ref] .

First Data Release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program · Hyper-Suprime Cam · 0.96

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