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PreprintarXiv licencearXiv

How sky subtraction scales affect Intracluster light measurements

  • Giulia Golini
  • Sarah Brough
  • Mireia Montes
  • Aaron Watkins
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Abstract

Deep imaging surveys are opening a new window on the low surface brightness universe. However, the recovery of diffuse emission depends on the survey depth and how the sky background is treated. Estimating the sky on scales comparable to astrophysical sources risks biasing flux measurements. This effect is particularly significant for intracluster light, the most extended diffuse baryonic component of galaxy clusters. We show in a M500--z plane that the sky subtraction scales employed in the Legacy Survey of Space and Time Data Preview 2 and Hyper Suprime-Cam Public Data Release 3 (HSC-PDR3) impact clusters with M500≳1013.4 M⊙ at all redshifts, whereas HSC-PDR2 only oversubtracts the most massive systems at z < 0.1. The larger sky subtraction scale anticipated for the full LSST survey will mitigate this bias.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{golini2026subtraction,
  title = {{How sky subtraction scales affect Intracluster light measurements}},
  author = {Giulia Golini and Sarah Brough and Mireia Montes and Aaron Watkins},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.05467},
  eprint = {2611.05467},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.05467},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - How sky subtraction scales affect Intracluster light measurements
AU  - Giulia Golini
AU  - Sarah Brough
AU  - Mireia Montes
AU  - Aaron Watkins
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/03
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.05467
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.05467
AB  - Deep imaging surveys are opening a new window on the low surface brightness universe. However, the recovery of diffuse emission depends on the survey depth and how the sky background is treated. Estimating the sky on scales comparable to astrophysical sources risks biasing flux measurements. This effect is particularly significant for intracluster light, the most extended diffuse baryonic component of galaxy clusters. We show in a M_500--z plane that the sky subtraction scales employed in the Legacy Survey of Space and Time Data Preview 2 and Hyper Suprime-Cam Public Data Release 3 (HSC-PDR3) impact clusters with M_500≳10^13.4 M_⊙ at all redshifts, whereas HSC-PDR2 only oversubtracts the most massive systems at z < 0.1. The larger sky subtraction scale anticipated for the full LSST survey will mitigate this bias.
ER  -