Dark Energy Survey Year 6 Results: Point-spread Function Modeling
Abstract
We present the point-spread function (PSF) modeling for weak lensing shear measurement using the full six years of the Dark Energy Survey (DES Y6) data. We review the PSF estimation procedure using the PIFF (PSFs In the Full FOV) software package and describe the key improvements made to PIFF and modeling diagnostics since the DES year three (Y3) analysis: (i) use of external Gaia and infrared photometry catalogs to ensure higher purity of the stellar sample used for model fitting, (ii) addition of color-dependent PSF modeling, the first for any weak lensing analysis, and (iii) inclusion of model diagnostics inspecting fourth-order moments, which can bias weak lensing measurements to a similar degree as second-order modeling errors. Through a comprehensive set of diagnostic tests, we demonstrate the improved accuracy of the Y6 models evident in significantly smaller systematic errors than those of the Y3 analysis, in which all band data were excluded due to insufficiently accurate PSF models. For the Y6 weak lensing analysis, we include band photometry data in addition to the bands, providing a fourth band for photometric redshift estimation. Looking forward to the next generation of wide-field surveys, we describe several ongoing improvements to PIFF, which will be the default PSF modeling software for weak lensing analyses for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2501.05781,
title = {Dark Energy Survey Year 6 Results: Point-spread Function Modeling},
author = {T. Schutt and M. Jarvis and A. Roodman and A. Amon and M. R. Becker and R. A. Gruendl and M. Yamamoto and K. Bechtol and G. M. Bernstein and M. Gatti and E. S. Rykoff and E. Sheldon and M. A. Troxel and T. M. C. Abbott and M. Aguena and A. Alarcon and F. Andrade-Oliveira and D. Brooks and A. Carnero Rosell and J. Carretero and C. Chang and A. Choi and M. Crocce and L. N. da Costa and T. M. Davis and J. De Vicente and S. Desai and H. T. Diehl and S. Dodelson and P. Doel and C. Doux and A. Drlica-Wagner and A. Ferté and J. Frieman and J. García-Bellido and E. Gaztanaga and G. Giannini and D. Gruen and G. Gutierrez and W. G. Hartley and K. Herner and S. R. Hinton and D. L. Hollowood and K. Honscheid and D. Huterer and E. Krause and K. Kuehn and O. Lahav and S. Lee and M. Lima and J. L. Marshall and J. Mena-Fernández and R. Miquel and J. J. Mohr and J. Muir and J. Myles and R. L. C. Ogando and A. Pieres and A. A. Plazas Malagón and A. Porredon and M. Raveri and M. Rodriguez-Monroy and S. Samuroff and E. Sanchez and D. Sanchez Cid and I. Sevilla-Noarbe and M. Smith and E. Suchyta and G. Tarle and V. Vikram and A. R. Walker and N. Weaverdyck and Y. Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.05781},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
33 pages, 24 figures, accepted to OJA