{
  "abstract": "Galaxy asymmetry is an efficient way to characterize galaxy morphology in atomic hydrogen 21 cm emission detections. We propose a novel Bayesian approach to calculate the probability of an underlying squared differences asymmetry in a noisy detection. This approach has a number of advantages, including the recovery of low asymmetry values where prior noise corrections failed. More importantly, our approach provides robust uncertainties on the asymmetry, enabling a wide variety of statistical studies of galaxy populations. This method is generalized for convolved noise measures. We validate our method using a convergence test. Finally, we show how, when applied to the untargeted H I survey WALLABY, our method nearly triples the number of reliable measurements relatively to the previous state-of-the-art technique. This Bayesian approach to measure asymmetry will therefore further unlock the statistical power of widefield galaxy surveys.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Queen’s University",
    "University of Edinburgh",
    "Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Mathieu Perron-Cormier"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Kristine Spekkens"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Nathan Deg",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-3523-7633"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Lawrence M. Widrow",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6211-8635"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Marcin Glowacki"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2jh58w8jxh34b.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3847/1538-4357/aea97a",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "2jh58w8jxh34b",
  "issns": [
    "0004-637X",
    "1538-4357"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea97a",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214100340",
  "pdf_url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea97a/pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-12",
  "publisher": "American Astronomical Society",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2jh58w8jxh34b.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:11Z",
      "native_id": "10.3847/1538-4357/aea97a",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea97a"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "openalex:3103|Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena",
      "subfield": "galaxies"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Bayesian Galaxy Asymmetry",
  "title_text": "Bayesian Galaxy Asymmetry",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:11Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2jh58w8jxh34b",
  "venue": "The Astrophysical Journal",
  "versions": [
    {
      "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.26472",
      "pid": "c4prvkmhexerx",
      "relation": "preprint",
      "title": "Bayesian Galaxy Asymmetry",
      "venue": "arXiv"
    }
  ]
}