Euclid preparation LXXIX. Using mock low surface brightness dwarf galaxies to probe Euclid Wide Survey detection capabilities
Abstract
Local Universe dwarf galaxies can serve as both cosmological and mass assembly probes. Deep surveys have enabled the study of these objects down to the low surface brightness (LSB) regime. In this paper, we estimate Euclid's dwarf detection capabilities as well as limits of its MERge processing function (MER pipeline), which is responsible for producing the stacked mosaics and final catalogues. To do this, we injected mock dwarf galaxies in a real Euclid Wide Survey (EWS) field in the VIS band and compared the input catalogue to the final MER catalogue. The mock dwarf galaxies were generated using simple Sersic models with structural parameters (including size and surface brightness) drawn from observed dwarf galaxy catalogues. These simulations represent an idealised case in the sense they do not account for additional factors such as ellipticity, morphology, or crowding. To characterise the detected dwarfs, we used the mean surface brightness inside the effective radius SB_e (in mag arcsec^-2). The final MER catalogues achieve completenesses of 91% for SB_e in [21,24] and 54% for SB_e in [24,28]. These numbers do not take into account possible contaminants, including confusion with background galaxies at the location of the dwarfs. After taking those effects into account, they respectively became 86% and 38%. The MER pipeline performs a final local background subtraction with a small mesh size, leading to a flux loss for galaxies with R_e > 10 arcsec. By using the final MER mosaics and reinjecting this local background, we obtained an image in which we recover reliable photometric properties for objects under the arcminute scale. This background-reinjected product is thus suitable for the study of Local Universe dwarf galaxies. Euclid's data reduction pipeline serves as a test bed for other deep surveys, particularly regarding background subtraction methods, a key issue in LSB science.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2509.13163,
title = {Euclid preparation LXXIX. Using mock low surface brightness dwarf galaxies to probe Euclid Wide Survey detection capabilities},
author = {Euclid Collaboration and M. Urbano and P. -A. Duc and M. Poulain and A. A. Nucita and A. Venhola and O. Marchal and M. Kümmel and H. Kong and F. Soldano and E. Romelli and M. Walmsley and T. Saifollahi and K. Voggel and A. Lançon and F. R. Marleau and E. Sola and L. K. Hunt and J. Junais and D. Carollo and P. M. Sanchez-Alarcon and M. Baes and F. Buitrago and Michele Cantiello and J. -C. Cuillandre and H. Domínguez Sánchez and A. Ferré-Mateu and A. Franco and J. Gracia-Carpio and R. Habas and M. Hilker and E. Iodice and J. H. Knapen and M. N. Le and D. Martínez-Delgado and O. Müller and F. De Paolis and P. Papaderos and R. Ragusa and J. Román and E. Saremi and V. Testa and B. Altieri and L. Amendola and S. Andreon and N. Auricchio and C. Baccigalupi and M. Baldi and S. Bardelli and P. Battaglia and A. Biviano and E. Branchini and M. Brescia and S. Camera and G. Cañas-Herrera and V. Capobianco and C. Carbone and J. Carretero and S. Casas and M. Castellano and G. Castignani and S. Cavuoti and A. Cimatti and C. Colodro-Conde and G. Congedo and C. J. Conselice and L. Conversi and Y. Copin and F. Courbin and H. M. Courtois and M. Cropper and A. Da Silva and H. Degaudenzi and G. De Lucia and H. Dole and F. Dubath and C. A. J. Duncan and X. Dupac and S. Dusini and S. Escoffier and M. Farina and R. Farinelli and S. Ferriol and F. Finelli and M. Frailis and E. Franceschi and M. Fumana and S. Galeotta and K. George and B. Gillis and C. Giocoli and A. Grazian and F. Grupp and L. Guzzo and S. V. H. Haugan and W. Holmes and I. M. Hook and F. Hormuth and A. Hornstrup and K. Jahnke and M. Jhabvala and B. Joachimi and E. Keihänen and S. Kermiche and A. Kiessling and B. Kubik and M. Kunz and H. Kurki-Suonio and R. Laureijs and A. M. C. Le Brun and S. Ligori and P. B. Lilje and V. Lindholm and I. Lloro and G. Mainetti and D. Maino and E. Maiorano and O. Mansutti and O. Marggraf and M. Martinelli and N. Martinet and F. Marulli and R. J. Massey and E. Medinaceli and S. Mei and Y. Mellier and M. Meneghetti and E. Merlin and G. Meylan and A. Mora and M. Moresco and L. Moscardini and R. Nakajima and C. Neissner and S. -M. Niemi and C. Padilla and S. Paltani and F. Pasian and K. Pedersen and V. Pettorino and S. Pires and G. Polenta and M. Poncet and L. A. Popa and L. Pozzetti and F. Raison and R. Rebolo and A. Renzi and J. Rhodes and G. Riccio and M. Roncarelli and R. Saglia and Z. Sakr and D. Sapone and B. Sartoris and P. Schneider and T. Schrabback and A. Secroun and G. Seidel and S. Serrano and P. Simon and C. Sirignano and G. Sirri and L. Stanco and J. -L. Starck and J. Steinwagner and P. Tallada-Crespí and A. N. Taylor and H. I. Teplitz and I. Tereno and N. Tessore and S. Toft and R. Toledo-Moreo and F. Torradeflot and I. Tutusaus and L. Valenziano and J. Valiviita and T. Vassallo and G. Verdoes Kleijn and A. Veropalumbo and Y. Wang and J. Weller and G. Zamorani and I. A. Zinchenko and E. Zucca and M. Ballardini and M. Bolzonella and E. Bozzo and C. Burigana and R. Cabanac and A. Cappi and D. Di Ferdinando and J. A. Escartin Vigo and L. Gabarra and M. Huertas-Company and J. Martín-Fleitas and S. Matthew and N. Mauri and R. B. Metcalf and A. Pezzotta and M. Pöntinen and C. Porciani and I. Risso and V. Scottez and M. Sereno and M. Tenti and M. Viel and M. Wiesmann and Y. Akrami and I. T. Andika and S. Anselmi and M. Archidiacono and F. Atrio-Barandela and D. Bertacca and M. Bethermin and A. Blanchard and L. Blot and M. Bonici and S. Borgani and M. L. Brown and S. Bruton and A. Calabro and B. Camacho Quevedo and F. Caro and C. S. Carvalho and T. Castro and F. Cogato and S. Conseil and A. R. Cooray and O. Cucciati and S. Davini and G. Desprez and A. Díaz-Sánchez and J. J. Diaz and S. Di Domizio and J. M. Diego and M. Y. Elkhashab and A. Enia and Y. Fang and A. G. Ferrari and A. Finoguenov and K. Ganga and J. García-Bellido and T. Gasparetto and V. Gautard and E. Gaztanaga and F. Giacomini and F. Gianotti and G. Gozaliasl and M. Guidi and C. M. Gutierrez and A. Hall and H. Hildebrandt and J. Hjorth and J. J. E. Kajava and Y. Kang and V. Kansal and D. Karagiannis and K. Kiiveri and J. Kim and C. C. Kirkpatrick and S. Kruk and J. Le Graet and L. Legrand and M. Lembo and F. Lepori and G. Leroy and G. F. Lesci and J. Lesgourgues and L. Leuzzi and T. I. Liaudat and A. Loureiro and J. Macias-Perez and G. Maggio and M. Magliocchetti and F. Mannucci and R. Maoli and C. J. A. P. Martins and L. Maurin and M. Miluzio and P. Monaco and C. Moretti and G. Morgante and K. Naidoo and A. Navarro-Alsina and S. Nesseris and D. Paoletti and F. Passalacqua and K. Paterson and L. Patrizii and A. Pisani and D. Potter and S. Quai and M. Radovich and G. Rodighiero and S. Sacquegna and M. Sahlén and D. B. Sanders and E. Sarpa and A. Schneider and D. Sciotti and E. Sellentin and L. C. Smith and J. G. Sorce and K. Tanidis and C. Tao and G. Testera and R. Teyssier and S. Tosi and A. Troja and M. Tucci and C. Valieri and D. Vergani and G. Verza and P. Vielzeuf and N. A. Walton},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.13163},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics (acceptance date: 30/10/2025). 22 pages, 19 figures, 7 tables