1. Information content of BP/RP spectra in Gaia DR3
- Author
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Callum E C Witten, David S Aguado, Jason L Sanders, Vasily Belokurov, N Wyn Evans, Sergey E Koposov, Carlos Allende Prieto, Francesca De Angeli, Mike J Irwin, Witten, CEC [0000-0002-1369-6452], Aguado, DS [0000-0001-5200-3973], Sanders, JL [0000-0003-4593-6788], Belokurov, V [0000-0002-0038-9584], Koposov, SE [0000-0003-2644-135X], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
- Subjects
astro-ph.SR ,Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,stars: abundances ,Space and Planetary Science ,Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) ,astro-ph.GA ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,stars: fundamental parameters ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) ,stars: chemically peculiar - Abstract
Gaia Data Release 3 has provided the astronomical community with the largest stellar spectroscopic survey to date ($>$ 220 million sources). The low resolution (R$\sim$50) blue photometer (BP) and red photometer (RP) spectra will allow for the estimation of stellar atmospheric parameters such as effective temperature, surface gravity and metallicity. We create mock Gaia BP/RP spectra and use Fisher information matrices to probe the resolution limit of stellar parameter measurements using BP/RP spectra. The best-case scenario uncertainties that this analysis provides are then used to produce a mock-observed stellar population in order to evaluate the false positive rate (FPR) of identifying extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars. We conclude that the community will be able to confidently identify metal-poor stars at magnitudes brighter than $G = 16$ using BP/RP spectra. At fainter magnitudes true detections will start to be overwhelmed by false positives. When adopting the commonly-used $G < 14$ limit for metal-poor star searches, we find a FPR for the low-metallicity regimes [Fe/H] $, Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in MNRAS
- Published
- 2022
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