Machine learning metallicity predictions using SDSS Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Miller A.A.
  2. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

Extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars ([Fe/H]<=-3.0dex) provide a unique window into understanding the first generation of stars and early chemical enrichment of the universe. EMP stars are exceptionally rare, however, and the relatively small number of confirmed discoveries limits our ability to exploit these near-field probes of the first ~500Myr after the Big Bang. Here, a new method to photometrically estimate [Fe/H] from only broadband photometric colors is presented. I show that the method, which utilizes machine-learning algorithms and a training set of ~170000 stars with spectroscopically measured [Fe/H], produces a typical scatter of ~0.29dex. This performance is similar to what is achievable via low-resolution spectroscopy, and outperforms other photometric techniques, while also being more general. I further show that a slight alteration to the model, wherein synthetic EMP stars are added to the training set, yields the robust identification of EMP candidates. In particular, this synthetic-oversampling method recovers ~20% of the EMP stars in the training set, at a precision of ~0.05. Furthermore, ~65% of the false positives from the model are very metal-poor stars ([Fe/H]<=-2.0dex). The synthetic-oversampling method is biased toward the discovery of warm (~F-type) stars, a consequence of the targeting bias from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey/Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding survey. This EMP selection method represents a significant improvement over alternative broadband optical selection techniques. The models are applied to >12 million stars, with an expected yield of ~600 new EMP stars, which promises to open new avenues for exploring the early universe.

Keywords
  1. metallicity
  2. astronomical-models
  3. visible-astronomy
  4. sloan-photometry
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2015ApJ...811...30M
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/811/30
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/811/30
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.18110030

Access

Web browser access HTML
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/811/30
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/811/30
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/811/30
IVOA Table Access TAP
http://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tap
Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).
IVOA Cone Search SCS
For use with a cone search client (e.g., TOPCAT).
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/811/30/table3?
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/811/30/table3?
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/811/30/table3?

History

2016-10-12T15:30:06Z
Resource record created
2016-10-12T15:30:06Z
Created
2017-01-23T22:00:00Z
Updated

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr