TY - JOUR
T1 - Reviewer Response
T2 - The HETDEX Survey Emission-line Exploration and Source Classification* * Based on observations obtained with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, which is a joint project of the University of Texas at Austin, the Pennsylvania State University, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. The HET is named in honor of its principal benefactors, William P. Hobby and Robert E. Eberly.
AU - Davis, Dustin
AU - Gebhardt, Karl
AU - Cooper, Erin Mentuch
AU - Ciardullo, Robin
AU - Fabricius, Maximilian
AU - Farrow, Daniel J.
AU - Feldmeier, John J.
AU - Finkelstein, Steven L.
AU - Gawiser, Eric
AU - Gronwall, Caryl
AU - Hill, Gary J.
AU - Hopp, Ulrich
AU - House, Lindsay R.
AU - Jeong, Donghui
AU - Kollatschny, Wolfram
AU - Komatsu, Eiichiro
AU - Landriau, Martin
AU - Liu, Chenxu
AU - Saito, Shun
AU - Tuttle, Sarah
AU - Wold, Isak G.B.
AU - Zeimann, Gregory R.
AU - Zhang, Yechi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
PY - 2023/4/1
Y1 - 2023/4/1
N2 - The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) is an untargeted spectroscopic survey that aims to measure the expansion rate of the universe at z ∼ 2.4 to 1% precision for both H(z) and D A (z). HETDEX is in the process of mapping in excess of one million Lyα emitting (LAE) galaxies and a similar number of lower-z galaxies as a tracer of the large-scale structure. The success of the measurement is predicated on the post-observation separation of galaxies with Lyα emission from the lower-z interloping galaxies, primarily [O ii], with low contamination and high recovery rates. The Emission Line eXplorer (ELiXer) is the principal classification tool for HETDEX, providing a tunable balance between contamination and completeness as dictated by science needs. By combining multiple selection criteria, ELiXer improves upon the 20 Å rest-frame equivalent width cut commonly used to distinguish LAEs from lower-z [O ii] emitting galaxies. Despite a spectral resolving power, R ∼ 800, that cannot resolve the [O ii] doublet, we demonstrate the ability to distinguish LAEs from foreground galaxies with 98.1% accuracy. We estimate a contamination rate of Lyα by [O ii] of 1.2% and a Lyα recovery rate of 99.1% using the default ELiXer configuration. These rates meet the HETDEX science requirements.
AB - The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) is an untargeted spectroscopic survey that aims to measure the expansion rate of the universe at z ∼ 2.4 to 1% precision for both H(z) and D A (z). HETDEX is in the process of mapping in excess of one million Lyα emitting (LAE) galaxies and a similar number of lower-z galaxies as a tracer of the large-scale structure. The success of the measurement is predicated on the post-observation separation of galaxies with Lyα emission from the lower-z interloping galaxies, primarily [O ii], with low contamination and high recovery rates. The Emission Line eXplorer (ELiXer) is the principal classification tool for HETDEX, providing a tunable balance between contamination and completeness as dictated by science needs. By combining multiple selection criteria, ELiXer improves upon the 20 Å rest-frame equivalent width cut commonly used to distinguish LAEs from lower-z [O ii] emitting galaxies. Despite a spectral resolving power, R ∼ 800, that cannot resolve the [O ii] doublet, we demonstrate the ability to distinguish LAEs from foreground galaxies with 98.1% accuracy. We estimate a contamination rate of Lyα by [O ii] of 1.2% and a Lyα recovery rate of 99.1% using the default ELiXer configuration. These rates meet the HETDEX science requirements.
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U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/acb0ca
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/acb0ca
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85152124404
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 946
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 86
ER -