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We showcase machine learning (ML) inspired target selection algorithms to determine which of all potential targets should be selected first for spectroscopic follow-up. Efficient target selection can improve the ML redshift uncertainties as calculated on an independent sample, while requiring less targets to be observed. We compare seven different ML targeting algorithms with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) target order, and with a random targeting algorithm. The ML inspired algorithms are constructed iteratively by estimating which of the remaining target galaxies will be most difficult for the ML methods to accurately estimate redshifts using the previously observed data. This is performed by predicting the expected redshift error and redshift offset (or bias) of all of the remaining target galaxies. We find that the predicted values of bias and error are accurate to better than 10-30 per cent of the true values, even with only limited training sample sizes. We construct a hypothetical follow-up survey and find that some of the ML targeting algorithms are able to obtain the same redshift predictive power with 2-3 times less observing time, as compared to that of the SDSS, or random, target selection algorithms. The reduction in the required follow-up resources could allow for a change to the follow-up strategy, for example by obtaining deeper spectroscopy, which could improve ML redshift estimates for deeper test data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present analyses of data augmentation for machine learning redshift estimation. Data augmentation makes a training sample more closely resemble a test sample, if the two base samples differ, in order to improve measured statistics of the test sample.We perform two sets of analyses by selecting 800 000 (1.7 million) Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 8 (Data Release 10) galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts.We construct a base training set by imposing an artificial r-band apparent magnitude cut to select only bright galaxies and then augment this base training set by using simulations and by applying the K-CORRECT package to artificially place training set galaxies at a higher redshift. We obtain redshift estimates for the remaining faint galaxy sample, which are not used during training.We find that data augmentation reduces the error on the recovered redshifts by 40 per cent in both sets of analyses, when compared to the difference in error between the ideal case and the non-augmented case. The outlier fraction is also reduced by at least 10 per cent and up to 80 per cent using data augmentation.We finally quantify how the recovered redshifts degrade as one probes to deeper magnitudes past the artificial magnitude limit of the bright training sample.We find that at all apparent magnitudes explored, the use of data augmentation with tree-based methods provide an estimate of the galaxy redshift with a low value of bias, although the error on the recovered redshifts increases as we probe to deeper magnitudes. These results have applications for surveys which have a spectroscopic training set which forms a biased sample of all photometric galaxies, for example if the spectroscopic detection magnitude limit is shallower than the photometric limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present analyses of data augmentation for machine learning redshift estimation. Data augmentation makes a training sample more closely resemble a test sample, if the two base samples differ, in order to improve measured statistics of the test sample. We perform two sets of analyses by selecting 800 000 (1.7 million) Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 8 (Data Release 10) galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts. We construct a base training set by imposing an artificial r-band apparent magnitude cut to select only bright galaxies and then augment this base training set by using simulations and by applying the K-CORRECT package to artificially place training set galaxies at a higher redshift. We obtain redshift estimates for the remaining faint galaxy sample, which are not used during training. We find that data augmentation reduces the error on the recovered redshifts by 40 per cent in both sets of analyses, when compared to the difference in error between the ideal case and the non-augmented case. The outlier fraction is also reduced by at least 10 per cent and up to 80 per cent using data augmentation. We finally quantify how the recovered redshifts degrade as one probes to deeper magnitudes past the artificial magnitude limit of the bright training sample. We find that at all apparent magnitudes explored, the use of data augmentation with tree-based methods provide an estimate of the galaxy redshift with a low value of bias, although the error on the recovered redshifts increases as we probe to deeper magnitudes. These results have applications for surveys which have a spectroscopic training set which forms a biased sample of all photometric galaxies, for example if the spectroscopic detection magnitude limit is shallower than the photometric limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a catalog of 25 definite and 11 probable strong galaxy-galaxy gravitational lens systems with lens redshifts 0.4 ≲ z ≲ 0.7, discovered spectroscopically by the presence of higher-redshift emission lines within the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of luminous galaxies, and confirmed with high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of 44 candidates. Our survey extends the methodology of the Sloan Lens Advanced Camera for Surveys survey (SLACS) to higher redshift. We describe the details of the BOSS spectroscopic candidate detections, our HST ACS image processing and analysis methods, and our strong gravitational lens modeling procedure. We report BOSS spectroscopic parameters and ACS photometric parameters for all candidates, and mass-distribution parameters for the best-fit singular isothermal ellipsoid models of definite lenses. Our sample to date was selected using only the first six months of BOSS survey-quality spectroscopic data. The full five-year BOSS database should produce a sample of several hundred strong galaxy-galaxy lenses and in combination with SLACS lenses at lower redshift, strongly constrain the redshift evolution of the structure of elliptical, bulge-dominated galaxies as a function of luminosity, stellar mass, and rest-frame color, thereby providing a powerful test for competing theories of galaxy formation and evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]