Publication Date
2009
Journal or Book Title
Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series
Abstract
We introduce a novel image decomposition package, Galphat, that provides robust estimates of galaxy surface brightness profiles using Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo. The Galphat-determined posterior distribution of parameters enables us to assign rigorous statistical confidence intervals to maximum a posteriori estimates and to test complex galaxy formation and evolution hypotheses. We describe the Galphat algorithm, assess its performance using test image data, and demonstrate that it has sufficient speed for production analysis of a large galaxy sample. Finally we briefly introduce our ongoing science program to study the distribution of galaxy structural properties in the local universe using Galphat.
Pages
158
Volume
419
Recommended Citation
Yoon, Ilsang; Weinberg, M; and Katz, N, "Beyond the Best-fit Parameter: New Insight on Galaxy Structure Decomposition From GALPHAT" (2009). Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series. 4.
Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/astro_faculty_pubs/4
Comments
This is the pre-published version harvested from ArXiv. The published version is located at http://www.aspbooks.org/a/volumes/article_details/?paper_id=31005