Pith. sign in

REVIEW 12 cited by

Deriving Physical Properties from Broadband Photometry with Prospector: Description of the Model and a Demonstration of its Accuracy Using 129 Galaxies in the Local Universe

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 1609.09073 v2 pith:Z7A6LZI6 submitted 2016-09-28 astro-ph.GA

classification astro-ph.GA
keywords modelstellaraccuracyphotometryalphaattenuationbroadbanddust
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
0 comments
abstract

Broadband photometry of galaxies measures an unresolved mix of complex stellar populations, gas, and dust. Interpreting these data is a challenge for models: many studies have shown that properties derived from modeling galaxy photometry are uncertain by a factor of two or more, and yet answering key questions in the field now requires higher accuracy than this. Here, we present a new model framework specifically designed for these complexities. Our model, Prospector-$\alpha$, includes dust attenuation and re-radiation, a flexible attenuation curve, nebular emission, stellar metallicity, and a 6-component nonparametric star formation history. The flexibility and range of the parameter space, coupled with MCMC sampling within the Prospector inference framework, is designed to provide unbiased parameters and realistic error bars. We assess the accuracy of the model with aperture-matched optical spectroscopy, which was excluded from the fits. We compare spectral features predicted solely from fits to the broadband photometry to the observed spectral features. Our model predicts H$\alpha$ luminosities with a scatter of $\sim$0.18 dex and an offset of $\sim$0.1 dex across a wide range of morphological types and stellar masses. This agreement is remarkable, as the H$\alpha$ luminosity is dependent on accurate star formation rates, dust attenuation, and stellar metallicities. The model also accurately predicts dust-sensitive Balmer decrements, spectroscopic stellar metallicities, PAH mass fractions, and the age- and metallicity-sensitive features D$_{\mathrm{n}}$4000 and H$\delta$. Although the model passes all these tests, we caution that we have not yet assessed its performance at higher redshift or the accuracy of recovered stellar masses.

Discussion (0). Sign in to comment.

Forward citations

Cited by 12 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Lyman-alpha haloes in the aftermath of reionisation

    astro-ph.GA 2026-07 accept novelty 7.0 of 10

    Lyα haloes around low-luminosity LAEs at z≥6 have exponential scale lengths ~3× smaller than at z~3 under matched intrinsic surface-brightness sensitivity, with stacks of non-detections showing no extended emission at high-z.

  2. Mapping Dust Attenuation at Kiloparsec Scales. III. The 2175\AA\ Bump

    astro-ph.GA 2026-07 accept novelty 6.0 of 10

    The 2175Å attenuation bump is strongest at low Σ_Hα/Σ_* (especially non-SF regions) while absolute strength tracks dust column, supporting local radiation-field processing of its carriers.

  3. LEGGOS I: The JWST LEGGOS Survey -- LEnsing and Galaxy Growth: Observing Substructures -- Unpacks the Nature of Clumpy Star Formation and Quenching in Gravitationally Lensed Galaxies beyond Cosmic Noon

    astro-ph.GA 2026-06 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A JWST survey of eight gravitationally lensed galaxies at z=2-4 resolves 10-200 pc star-forming clumps and finds early evidence of recently quenched, post-starburst clumps.

  4. pop-cosmos: Disentangling galaxy properties from observables using data-driven approaches

    astro-ph.GA 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 6.0 of 10

    A beta-VAE analysis of pop-cosmos models finds that five latent dimensions capture the rest-frame optical SED, corresponding to stellar mass, recent star formation, dust, and two gas ionization states.

  5. pop-cosmos: Disentangling galaxy properties from observables using data-driven approaches

    astro-ph.GA 2026-06 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Rest-frame optical galaxy SEDs from a 16-parameter SPS model are captured by five disentangled VAE latents (mass, young stars, dust, soft/hard ionization); metallicity and age are not independent drivers.

  6. ZTF SN Ia DR2 follow-up: early excess in Type Ia supernova light curves

    astro-ph.CO 2026-07 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Up to about a quarter of Type Ia supernovae may have an early light-curve bump, but the candidate list depends strongly on the detection method and neither leading explosion model is clearly preferred.

  7. Mapping Dust Attenuation at Kiloparsec Scales. III. The 2175\AA\ Bump

    astro-ph.GA 2026-07 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    At kiloparsec scales, the 2175 Å dust bump is strongest in non-star-forming regions with the lowest ionized-gas emission per stellar mass and weakens where recent star formation is strong.

  8. Late-time evolution of the interacting stripped-envelope supernova 2017dio

    astro-ph.HE 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0 of 10

    Late-time data on SN 2017dio yield mass-loss rates of ~0.2 M_sun/yr peak and ~0.06 typical, with H-rich CSM from a companion and dust masses 0.001-0.02 M_sun, indicating sudden mass-loss increase.

  9. pop-cosmos: Galaxy size evolution across structural and star-formation classifications in COSMOS-Web

    astro-ph.GA 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0 of 10

    Galaxy size-mass relations exhibit double power-law breaks at different pivot masses for quiescent versus bulge-dominated samples, coinciding with AGN activity scales.

  10. JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) Data Release 5: stellar population catalogue for galaxies in GOODS-N and GOODS-S

    astro-ph.GA 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 5.0 of 10

    JADES DR5 delivers a public catalog of Bayesian-inferred stellar masses, SFRs, SFHs, dust, metallicities, and AGN contributions for ~500k galaxies via Prospector with an evolving SFMS prior.

  11. LEGGOS I: The JWST LEGGOS Survey -- LEnsing and Galaxy Growth: Observing Substructures -- Unpacks the Nature of Clumpy Star Formation and Quenching in Gravitationally Lensed Galaxies beyond Cosmic Noon

    astro-ph.GA 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 4.0 of 10

    LEGGOS presents a uniform framework that jointly models lensing, photometry, and integral-field spectroscopy to disentangle stellar populations in clumps of high-redshift lensed galaxies.

  12. Updating the PATH framework with FRB host galaxy models

    astro-ph.HE 2026-06 conditional novelty 4.0 of 10

    PATH is extended with three fitted P(m_r|z) prior models combined with P(z|DM), raising host-association confidence for ASKAP FRBs while showing fainter-than-expected host magnitude distribution.

Pith tools