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PreprintCC BY 4.0arXiv

Bayesian Galaxy Asymmetry

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 HI 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.

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BibTeX
@misc{perroncormier2026bayesian,
  title = {{Bayesian Galaxy Asymmetry}},
  author = {Mathieu Perron-Cormier and Kristine Spekkens and Nathan Deg and Lawrence M. Widrow and Marcin Glowacki},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.26472},
  eprint = {2609.26472},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.26472},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Bayesian Galaxy Asymmetry
AU  - Mathieu Perron-Cormier
AU  - Kristine Spekkens
AU  - Nathan Deg
AU  - Lawrence M. Widrow
AU  - Marcin Glowacki
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/22
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.26472
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.26472
AB  - 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 HI 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.
ER  -