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Eric Gawiser

Publications and source records attributed to Eric Gawiser.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

The Roman eXtreme Deep Field (RXDF)

The Roman eXtreme Deep Field (RXDF) program is one of the five General Astrophysics Survey (GAS) programs approved for observing time with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in Cycles 1 and 2. It has been allocated 386.41 hours to carry out an imaging survey to AB = 30 mag (5-sigma) over ~140x larger area than the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (HXDF) full-depth area (ACS+WFC3/IR). The RXDF will cover the full Roman wavelength range with 7 bands, reaching AB = 30 mag in RZYJH, 29 mag in F, and 28 mag in K, over a full-depth area of 678.75 arcmin^2 embedded in a total area of 1,243 arcmin^2, and far exceeding the depths of the Roman Core Community Surveys (CCS). The RXDF is within the Euclid Ultra Deep Field (EUDF) near the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP), a strategic long-term field for generational space facilities, with a wealth of multi-wavelength data including extensive coverage from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) NEXUS Treasury program. The observations will cover 3 epochs at a 1-year cadence, each epoch divided into 3 sub-epochs ~10 days apart, enabling time-domain studies on time baselines from ~10 days to over ~2 years. The RXDF is uniquely positioned to address critical questions in reionization, large scale structure (LSS), growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs), little red dots (LRDs), and high-z supernovae (SNe); the volumes probed by HST+JWST are too small at these extreme depths, and even the deepest CCS tiers are too shallow. In addition to our key objectives, a wealth of additional science will be enabled by engaging the community with our rapidly released datasets, revolutionizing a wide range of science for a lasting legacy. This short document, which is converted from the approved RXDF proposal, aims to provide the community with a summary of the program.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2026

Fisher Forecasting for the DESC with $\texttt{Augur}$

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) has begun its ten-year survey of the entire visible southern hemisphere. To ensure robust cosmological measurements, computationally inexpensive investigations of modeling choices must be made to gauge the performance of proposed cosmological analyses. In this paper, we introduce the $\texttt{Augur}$ tool of the Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC), which provides Fisher forecasts for cosmological inference for the LSST using software frameworks designed for DESC science. We test the pipeline by comparing it to forecasts produced by external code and direct sampling of the posterior via nested sampling methods, finding good agreement between all methods. We additionally investigate a range of modeling and hyperparameter choices for a 3$\times$2pt investigation in harmonic space, providing users with diagnostics to obtain reliable forecasts. $\texttt{Augur}$ will be continually updated to be compatible with the other tools in the DESC software ecosystem as additional probes and functionality become available.

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arXiv2026

HETDEX: Star Formation Stochasticity Diagram of Lyman Alpha Emitting Galaxies at Cosmic Noon Confirms Three Archetypes

In this work, we aim to measure the star formation stochasticity of Lyman Alpha Emitting Galaxies (LAEs) at Cosmic Noon. We identify 270 LAEs from the HETDEX Survey in the COSMOS field with rest-UV-through-NIR photometry from CANDELS\null. For each LAE, we perform non-parametric gaussian-process star formation history (SFH) reconstruction using the Dense Basis method. Our HETDEX LAE sample is described well by the three SFH archetypes defined for ODIN LAEs in Firestone et al. 2025 with comparable frequency: First Burst, Dominant Burst, and Nondominant Burst. The rapidly rising Star Formation Rates (SFRs) of First Burst LAEs are not adequately represented in traditional SFR$_{100}-M_*$ diagrams, where SFR$_{100}$ is averaged over the most recent 100Myr. This motivates the usage of SFR$_{10}-M_*$, where SFR$_{10}$ is averaged over the most recent 10Myr. We introduce the Star Formation Stochasticity Diagram, a diagnostic tool that probes variations in galaxies' SFRs across cosmic time. By eliminating the confounding factor of redshift evolution, we are able to employ a gaussian mixture model to decompose our ratio of short- vs.long-term SFR into statistically motivated sub-populations. This agnostic component decomposition reveals three populations consistent with the empirical LAE SFH archetypes. We can, therefore, summarize the overall stellar mass assembly of LAEs with this ratio, even without viewing their full star formation histories.

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arXiv2026

ODIN: Rest-frame Optical Morphologies and Star Formation Activity of Ly{\alpha} Emitters at z=2.4, 3.1, and 4.5

We analyze the rest-frame optical (~8000 {\AA}) morphologies and star formation activity of Ly{\alpha} emitters (LAEs) at redshifts $2.4$, $3.1$, and $4.5$, identified in the ODIN survey. To compare their physical properties with those of other galaxies, we construct a comparison sample of typical star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at similar redshifts from the COSMOS2025 catalog. Using the \textit{JWST}/NIRCam images from the COSMOS-Web survey, we measure the rest-frame optical sizes and S\'ersic indices. We first examine their size-mass relations and find that LAEs at all three redshifts have smaller sizes than typical SFGs, with the size difference decreasing at higher redshifts. We also find that LAEs tend to have larger S\'ersic indices at $z=2.4$ and $3.1$ than typical SFGs, but the difference becomes weaker at $z=4.5$. These trends are qualitatively reproduced in the Horizon Run 5 cosmological hydrodynamical simulation. We then investigate star formation activity and find that LAEs exhibit higher star formation rates than typical SFGs at all redshifts considered. Finally, we examine the connection between Ly{\alpha} emission and galaxy structure, finding that the rest-frame equivalent width (REW) of the Ly{\alpha} emission line has negative and positive correlations with size and S\'ersic index, respectively. In addition, we find a strong positive correlation between the Ly{\alpha} REW and the ratio of the instantaneous star formation rate to that averaged over the last $100\;\mathrm{Myr}$ (i.e., $\mathrm{SFR_{inst}}/\mathrm{SFR_{100 Myr}}$). These results suggest the compact and starbursting nature of LAEs, and provide important constraints on the physical mechanism for the Ly{\alpha} photon escape from galaxies.

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arXiv2026

Enhancing Lyα Emitter Identification in HETDEX with a Convolutional Neural Network

We present a deep learning framework to enhance the identification of Ly$α$ emitters (LAEs) in the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX), an untargeted spectroscopic survey of LAEs at $1.9 < z < 3.5$ without imaging pre-selection. We primarily address the low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) regime ($4.8 \leq \mathrm{S/N} \leq 5.5$), where LAE candidates suffer from substantial noise contamination. To distinguish LAE candidates from artifacts and sky residuals, we employ a convolutional neural network (CNN) trained on two-dimensional spectral images of single emission lines. The training sample is constructed from the HETDEX COSMOS catalog, with external validation from ancillary observations and our participatory science project, \textit{Dark Energy Explorers}. For small-format, low-resolution spectroscopic data, the model achieves a balanced accuracy, precision, and recall of $94.1\%$, $97.5\%$, and $97.5\%$, respectively, in the high-S/N regime ($\mathrm{S/N}>5.5$), and $85.1\%$, $78.2\%$, and $84.4\%$ in the low-S/N regime. Using HETDEX LAEs independently identified by DESI spectroscopy, the model recovers $99\%$ and $93\%$ of the high- and low-S/N LAEs, respectively. Visual attribution indicates that the CNN attends to smooth, spatially extended central emission in true positives and to irregular or noisy features in true negatives. Applied to the full HETDEX catalog, the CNN enables an S/N threshold down to 4.8 by suppressing spurious spikes across $z\sim 1.9$--$2.5$ in the redshift distribution. Our approach facilitates HETDEX cosmological analyses by mitigating false positives in galaxy clustering and highlights the value of domain-specific deep learning for refining low-S/N spectroscopic identification in untargeted surveys.

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arXiv2026

Improved photometric redshift estimations through self-organising map-based data augmentation

We introduce a framework for the enhanced estimation of photometric redshifts using Self-Organising Maps (SOMs). Our method projects galaxy Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) onto a two-dimensional map, identifying regions that are sparsely sampled by existing spectroscopic observations. These under-sampled areas are then augmented with simulated galaxies, yielding a more representative spectroscopic training dataset. To assess the efficacy of this SOM-based data augmentation in the context of the forthcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), we employ mock galaxy catalogues from the OpenUniverse2024 project and generate synthetic datasets that mimic the expected photometric selections of LSST after one (Y1) and ten (Y10) years of observation. We construct 501 degraded realisations by sampling galaxy colours, magnitudes, redshifts and spectroscopic success rates, in order to emulate the compilation of a wide array of realistic spectroscopic surveys. Augmenting the degraded mock datasets with simulated galaxies from the independent CosmoDC2 catalogues has markedly improved the performance of our photometric redshift estimates compared to models lacking this augmentation, particularly for high-redshift galaxies ($z_\mathrm{true} \gtrsim 1.5$). This improvement is manifested in notably reduced systematic biases and a decrease in catastrophic failures by up to approximately a factor of 2, along with a reduction in information loss in the conditional density estimations. These results underscore the effectiveness of SOM-based augmentation in refining photometric redshift estimation, thereby enabling more robust analyses in cosmology and astrophysics for the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

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arXiv2026

Bayesian Component Separation for DESI LAE Automated Spectroscopic Redshifts and Photometric Targeting

Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs) are valuable high-redshift cosmological probes traditionally identified using specialized narrow-band photometric surveys. In ground-based spectroscopy, it can be difficult to distinguish the sharp LAE peak from residual sky emission lines using automated methods, leading to misclassified redshifts. We present a Bayesian spectral component separation technique to automatically determine spectroscopic redshifts for LAEs while marginalizing over sky residuals. We use visually inspected spectra of LAEs obtained using the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) to create a data-driven prior and can determine redshift by jointly inferring sky residual, LAE, and residual components for each individual spectrum. We demonstrate this method on 881 spectroscopically observed $z = 2-4$ DESI LAE candidate spectra and determine their redshifts with $>$90% accuracy when validated against visually inspected redshifts. Using the $Δχ^2$ value from our pipeline as a proxy for detection confidence, we then explore potential survey design choices and implications for targeting LAEs with medium-band photometry. This method allows for scalability and accuracy in determining redshifts from DESI spectra, and the results provide recommendations for LAE targeting in anticipation of future high-redshift spectroscopic surveys.

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arXiv2026

Searching Within Galaxies for the Earliest Signs of Quenching With Spatially Resolved Star Formation Histories in UVCANDELS Galaxies at z< 0.3

Understanding the complicated processes that regulate star formation and cause a galaxy to become quiescent is key to our comprehension of galaxy evolution. We used eight well resolved star-forming z$<$ 0.3 galaxies from the UVCANDELS survey, where a total of 10 HST bands including UV follow up in UVIS/F275W allow us to reconstruct the star formation histories (SFHs) of regions across each galaxy. This approach provides a powerful tool to explore the spatio-temporal connection between star formation and galaxy evolution. The spatial and temporal profiles of stellar mass and star formation rate surface density were obtained from the SFHs of these regions. We measure scaling relations and projected radial profiles of regions within each galaxy at the time of observation and at 1 Gyr lookback time, noting possible trends in the evolution. By comparing the change in star formation over time we can infer the timing and location of star formation and see early signs of star formation shut off before quenching occurs. We compared the star formation rate density -- stellar mass density scaling relations for individual galaxies as they evolve from 1 Gyr lookback time. The correlation lines pivot around a log-stellar mass surface density of 7.25 [$M_\odot$ $kpc^{-2}$] may be evidence of a self-regulating process on these scales. Radial profiles of galaxy Log sSFR show an overall decrease over 1 Gyr, but five galaxies show a greater change in Log sSFR at the outskirts than the center indicating a possible early onset of quenching in these galaxies.

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arXiv2026

A Non-parametric Method for the Inference of Halo Occupation Distributions

The galaxy-halo connection traces processes by which galaxies form and evolve. The halo occupation distribution (HOD) describes the relationship between galaxies and their host dark matter haloes. Measurements of the galaxy two-point correlation function (2PCF) allow us to extract information about the HODs of observed galaxy samples. Several parametric HOD models have been proposed in the literature, but the choice of parameterization restricts the space of possible HODs. To resolve this issue, we introduce a non-parametric HOD fitting method in which we train an emulator to learn the mappings among the galaxy 2PCF, physical properties used to select galaxy samples, and the HOD, all obtained from simulated past lightcones constructed with the Santa Cruz semi-analytic models. Implementing this emulator within a likelihood analysis framework, we derive constraints on the HOD of a galaxy sample when provided with a measurement of its 2PCF. Using the emulator to accelerate likelihood evaluations, we test the non-parametric HOD approach on a set of 2PCFs for mock galaxy samples drawn from the TNG100-1 simulation and selected above threshold values of stellar mass and star formation rate. Our framework is able to recover TNG100-1 HODs within 0.2 dex. We use the TNG100-1 mocks to tune the reported uncertainties to estimate those expected in the analysis of observations. Comparing to parametric HOD modeling routines applied to the same mock galaxy samples, our approach consistently infers the HOD with comparable or greater precision and accuracy.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2026

ODIN: Searching for LyC emission from Lyman-$α$ emitters at $z=4.5$ in the E-COSMOS and XMM-LSS fields

We investigated Lyman-continuum (LyC) emission from Lyman-$α$ emitters (LAEs) at $z=4.5$, identified in the One-hundred-deg$^2$ DECam Imaging in Narrowbands (ODIN) survey. Of the 7,498 LAEs (4,101 in COSMOS and 3,397 in XMM-LSS), we excluded LAEs that are either likely low-z objects or contaminated by neighboring sources. Additional background modeling process with thorough quality assessments leaves a final sample of 851 galaxies. We then performed forced photometry on $u/u^*$-band images from the CFHT large area $u$-band deep survey (CLAUDS) to measure their LyC fluxes. This represents the largest sample of $z=4.5$ LAEs searched for such a purpose. Within this sample, we identified 12 `gold' and 39 `silver' LyC-emitting candidates, with LyC fluxes detected of $>3σ$ and between $2σ$ and $3σ$, respectively, in the range of 5.16--55.29 nJy. No LyC signal is detected in the weighted mean stack of the final sample ($0.20 \pm 0.37$ nJy). Given the UVC magnitudes of LAEs in our sample, the expected LyC emission is likely below the detection limit even when stacking the full sample of ODIN LAEs. Nevertheless, having a large sample of LAEs remains valuable for identifying individual LyC leaker candidates. Among the gold and silver candidates, the LyC flux appears to correlate positively with UVC flux and negatively with Ly$α$ equivalent width, although the correlations are weak. A larger sample of LyC leakers will allow a more robust confirmation of these trends and provide better insights into their physical origins.

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arXiv2026

ODIN: Spectroscopic Validation of Ly$α$-Emitting Galaxy Samples with DESI

The One-hundred-deg^2 DECam Imaging in Narrowbands (ODIN) survey is conducting the widest-field deep narrow-band imaging of the equatorial and southern skies. ODIN uses three custom-built narrow-band (NB) filters that sample Lya-emitting galaxies (LAEs) within thin cosmic slices centered at z=2.4, 3.1, and 4.5. In this work, we utilize extensive DESI spectroscopy of ODIN-selected galaxies in the COSMOS and XMM-LSS fields to validate our LAE selection. 2-4 hr exposures with DESI yielded redshift confirmation of 3,075 ODIN LAE candidates with NB magnitudes brighter than 26~mag. Restricting to objects that yield high-confidence redshifts, the confirmation rates are (93, 96, 92)% at z=(2.4, 3.1, 4.5). The primary contaminants consist of active galactic nuclei at the expected Lya redshift range and lower redshifts (C IV, C III]), with the remainder being star-forming galaxies ([O II] and [O III]). We find minimal contamination from [O II] emitters in our sample (<~1%), implying that our REW>20 A narrow-band excess photometry requirement is sufficient to remove them.

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arXiv2026

ODIN: Confirmation and 3D Reconstruction of Six Massive Protoclusters at Cosmic Noon

Protoclusters represent sites of accelerated galaxy formation and extreme astrophysical activity characteristic of dense environments. Identifying massive protoclusters and mapping their spatial structures are therefore crucial first steps in understanding how the large-scale environment influences galaxy evolution. We combine wide-field Ly$\alpha$ imaging from the ODIN survey with extensive DESI and ancillary spectroscopy across the extended COSMOS and XMM-LSS fields ($\approx$14 deg$^2$) to search for massive protoclusters. We confirm six systems at $z\approx 2.4$ and $z\approx 3.1$, reconstruct their three-dimensional structures, estimate descendant halo masses, and, for one structure at $z\approx 3.12$, demonstrate that overlapping narrowband filters ($NB497$ and $N501$) provide accurate redshift tomography for emission-line galaxies. One protocluster at $z\approx 2.45$ overlaps with one of the LATIS tomographic fields, enabling direct comparison between galaxy and H {\sc i} overdensities traced by Ly$\alpha$ forest absorption. Another at $z\approx 3.12$ hosts a massive quiescent galaxy ($M_{\ast} \approx 1.2 \times 10^{11}M_\odot$), indicating early quenching in a dense environment. By comparing Ly$\alpha$ emission properties across environments, we find that protocluster galaxies exhibit higher median line fluxes and a deficit of faint emitters relative to the field. The effect is strongest when both 2D and 3D density information are combined, indicating that galaxies in the densest protocluster cores are most affected by environmental processes. This effect is stronger at $z\approx3.1$ than at $z\approx2.4$, suggesting possible redshift evolution.

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arXiv2026

Evolution of submillimeter galaxies across cosmic-web environments

Submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) provide valuable insights into galaxy formation and evolution and are likely influenced by their cosmic environment. However, their rarity makes environmental trends difficult to establish. We use the FLAMINGO simulation, which simultaneously reproduces the redshift distribution and number counts of SMGs. We use the DisPerSE to identify filamentary structures at $z=4$, 3, 2, 1.5, and 1. We define inner cluster-halo, outer cluster-halo, inner filament, outer filament, and void/wall environments at each redshift considering mass evolution of cluster-halos and density evolution of filaments. For a fixed stellar-mass cut of $M_* \geq 10^{9}$ M$_{\odot}$, the fraction of SMGs in the inner cluster-halo environment declines from $\sim30\%$ at $z=4$ to $\sim3\%$ by $z=1$, and similar trends are observed in other environments. The abundance of SMGs within a cluster-halo increases with halo mass, mirroring the increase in the total galaxy population. Consequently, the ratio of SMG halo occupation to that of all galaxies is largely insensitive to halo mass, but varies with redshift. In contrast, the ratio of the halo occupation of non-SMGs to that of all galaxies declines with halo mass and shows little redshift evolution. We show that the central and satellite SMGs form two distinct populations in inner cluster-halos. SMGs occupy the metal-rich side of the metallicity distribution, but rarely attain the highest metallicities because ongoing enrichment is limited by gas depletion. The brightest SMGs (S$_{850} > 10$ mJy) are found exclusively in inner cluster-halos, highlighting a strong connection between SMG luminosity and environmental density. Our results show that SMGs dominate star formation in dense environments, contributing up to $80\%$ of the SFR in inner cluster-halos at $z=4$, but less than $50\%$ in low-density regions.

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arXiv2026

Imaging systematics induced by galaxy sub-sample fluctuation: new systematics at second order

Imaging systematics refers to the inhomogeneous distribution of a galaxy sample caused by varying observing conditions and astrophysical foregrounds. Current mitigation methods correct the galaxy density fluctuations caused by imaging systematics assuming that all galaxies in a sample have the same galaxy density fluctuations. Under this assumption, the corrected sample cannot perfectly recover the true correlation function. We name this effect sub-sample systematics. For a galaxy sample, even if its overall sample statistics (redshift distribution n(z), galaxy bias b(z)), are accurately measured, n(z), b(z) can still vary across the observed footprint. It makes the correlation function amplitude of galaxy clustering higher, while correlation functions for galaxy-galaxy lensing and cosmic shear do not have noticeable change. Such a combination could potentially degenerate with physical signals on small angular scales, such as the amplitude of galaxy clustering, the impact of neutrino mass on the matter power spectrum, etc. Sub-sample systematics cannot be corrected using imaging systematics mitigation approaches that rely on the cross-correlation signal between imaging systematics maps and the observed galaxy density field. In this paper, we derive formulated expressions of sub-sample systematics, demonstrating its fundamental difference with other imaging systematics. We also provide several toy models to visualize this effect. Finally, we discuss a potential method to estimate and mitigate sub-sample systematics by forward modeling its behavior using Synthetic Source Injection.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2026

ODIN: Clustering Properties of Ly$\alpha$ Blobs at $z$ $\sim$ 2.4 and 3.1

Spatially extended Ly$\alpha$ nebulae, known as Ly$\alpha$ blobs (LABs), are a rare population at $z > 2$ that are thought to trace proto-groups or the progenitors of massive galaxies in the present-day universe. However, their dark matter halo properties (e.g., halo mass) are still uncertain due to their rarity and strong field-to-field variation. The One-hundred-deg$^2$ DECam Imaging in Narrowbands (ODIN) survey has discovered 103 and 112 LABs in the extended ($\sim$9~\sqdeg) COSMOS field at $z\sim2.4$ and 3.1, respectively, enabling estimation of their bias and host halo masses through clustering analysis. We measure the angular auto-correlation functions (ACFs) of LABs and derive galaxy bias factors of $b$ = $4.0\pm0.8$ and $3.8\pm0.7$, corresponding to minimum halo masses of $2.8^{+3.0}_{-1.8}$ and $0.7^{+0.8}_{-0.5}\times10^{12}~M_\odot$ and median halo masses of $4.2^{+3.8}_{-2.5}$ and $1.1^{+1.1}_{-0.7}\times10^{12}~M_\odot$ at $z\sim2.4$ and 3.1, respectively. LABs occupy $\sim$11$^{+39}_{-8}$\% and $\sim$3$^{+9}_{-2}$\% of all dark matter halos above these minimum halo masses. These findings suggest that LABs inhabit massive dark matter halos, likely tracing proto-group environments that evolve into present-day massive halos ($\sim$10$^{13}~M_\odot$), where massive elliptical galaxies or galaxy groups reside, by $z=0$.

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arXiv2025

ODIN: A New Lyman Alpha Blob Selection Method, Sample, and Statistical Analysis at $z\sim3.1$

Ly$\alpha$ blobs (LABs) are large, spatially extended Ly$\alpha$-emitting objects whose nature remains unclear. Their statistical properties such as number densities and luminosity functions are still uncertain because of small sample sizes and large cosmic variance. The One-hundred-deg$^2$ DECam Imaging in Narrowbands (ODIN) survey, with its large volume, offers an opportunity to overcome these limitations. We describe our LAB selection method and present 112 new LABs in the 9 deg$^2$ E-COSMOS field. We begin with the conventional LAB selection approach, cross-matching LAEs with extended Ly$\alpha$ sources, yielding 89 LAB candidates. To obtain a more complete LAB sample, we introduce a new selection pipeline that models all galaxies detected in deep broadband imaging, subtracts them from the narrowband image, and then directly detects extended Ly$\alpha$ emission. This method successfully identifies 23 additional low-surface-brightness LABs which could otherwise be missed by the conventional method. The number density of ODIN LABs near an ODIN protocluster ($n=7.5\times10^{-5}$ cMpc$^{-3}$) is comparable to that found in the SSA22 proto-cluster and is four times higher than the average across the field. The cumulative Ly$\alpha$ luminosity function within the protocluster regions is similar to that measured for the LABs in the SSA22 proto-cluster, suggesting a large excess of luminous LABs relative to the average field. These findings suggest the Ly$\alpha$ luminosities and number densities of LABs are environment-dependent. ODIN will provide an expansive LAB and protocluster samples across six additional fields and two more redshifts, allowing us to investigate the nature of LABs in relation to their environments.

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arXiv2025

Uniform Rolling: An LSST Observing Cadence Offering Sufficient Survey Uniformity for Comprehensive Cosmological Analysis

The Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) that will be carried out by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory promises to be the defining survey of the next decade, supplying unprecedented access to the night sky to static science- and time-domain science-focused researchers alike. Maximizing the output of the broad remit of Rubin Observatory science requires a non-trivial survey strategy. For time-domain science, the most promising strategy designed so far is a rolling survey strategy, whereby a subset of the full LSST survey area is observed at higher rate compared with the nominal rate dictated by weather conditions and the observatory's technical constraints. This strategy is now the baseline approach for the LSST as a whole. Focusing on static science (galaxy clustering and weak lensing), we study how these time-domain-optimized rolling strategies affect the depth uniformity at intermediate years of the survey. We characterize the amount of survey area at high risk of being lost in static-science analyses of a baseline rolling LSST dataset due to an insufficient combination of survey contiguity and uniformity. At intermediate data releases, nearly half of the survey could be lost for static science, decreasing the Dark Energy figure of merit by approximately 40\%. We describe additional metrics focused on key analysis tasks, such as photometric redshifts and galaxy clustering. We propose a new strategy that returns the survey to uniformity at key release years, enabling use of the full survey area and restoring our metrics to the values they would have in a non-rolling cadence without loss of time domain data relative to a rolling survey with the same number of rolling cycles. This work has informed the third round of optimization of the survey strategy, and the new uniform rolling strategies have been incorporated into the baseline strategy.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2025

Testing Photometric Techniques for Measuring the Rest-Frame UV Spectral Slope Against JWST PRISM Spectroscopy

We present a sample of 53 galaxy spectra at z_spec ~ 5-12 from the JWST CEERS and RUBIES surveys, combining NIRSpec PRISM spectroscopy with NIRCam photometry. We aim to use these data to establish best practices for measuring the UV spectral slope ($β$) in the era of JWST. We adopt power-law fits to the rest-frame UV continuum from the spectroscopic data as our fiducial, or `true', $β$ values, and compare them to photometric estimates derived through four methods: (1) photometric power-law fitting, (2) power-law fitting to an SED model fitted to the photometry, (3) single-color fitting near the Lyman break, and (4) single-color fitting at fixed rest-frame wavelengths. We find that photometric power-law fitting most closely recovers the spectroscopic slopes, with minimal bias and scatter. SED fitting performs moderately well, and can be preferable in cases of low signal-to-noise where photometric power-law fitting may become unreliable. Single-color estimates, while commonly used in past studies, show the most significant deviations and are not recommended when more than a single color is available. Our results highlight the limitations and strengths of each approach and provide practical guidance for measuring $β$ from photometry when spectra are unavailable or are of insufficient quality.

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