English

Euclid preparation. The impact of redshift interlopers on the two-point correlation function analysis

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2026-03-30 v2

Abstract

The Euclid survey aims to measure the spectroscopic redshift of emission-line galaxies by identifying the Hα\,{\alpha} line in their slitless spectra. This method is sensitive to the signal-to-noise ratio of the line, as noise fluctuations or other strong emission lines can be misidentified as Hα\,{\alpha}, depending on redshift. These effects lead to catastrophic redshift errors and the inclusion of interlopers in the sample. We forecast the impact of such redshift errors on galaxy clustering measurements. In particular, we study the effect of interloper contamination on the two-point correlation function (2PCF), the growth rate of structures, and the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) parameters. We analyze 1000 synthetic spectroscopic catalogues, the EuclidLargeMocks, designed to match the area and selection function of the Data Release 1 (DR1) sample. We estimate the 2PCF of the contaminated catalogues, isolating contributions from correctly identified galaxies and from interlopers. We explore different models with increasing complexity to describe the measured 2PCF at fixed cosmology. Finally, we perform a cosmological inference and evaluate the systematic error on the inferred fσ8f\sigma_8, α\alpha_{\parallel} and α\alpha_{\perp} values associated with different models. Our results demonstrate that a minimal modelling approach, which only accounts for an attenuation of the clustering signal regardless of the type of contaminants, is sufficient to recover the correct values of fσ8f\sigma_8, α\alpha_{\parallel}, and α\alpha_{\perp} at DR1. The accuracy and precision of the estimated AP parameters are largely insensitive to the presence of interlopers. The adoption of a minimal model induces a 1%-3% systematic error on the growth rate of structure estimation, depending on the redshift. However, this error remains smaller than the statistical error expected for the Euclid DR1 analysis.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.04688,
  title  = {Euclid preparation. The impact of redshift interlopers on the two-point correlation function analysis},
  author = {Euclid Collaboration and I. Risso and A. Veropalumbo and E. Branchini and E. Maragliano and S. de la Torre and E. Sarpa and P. Monaco and B. R. Granett and S. Lee and G. E. Addison and S. Bruton and C. Carbone and G. Lavaux and K. Markovic and K. McCarthy and G. Parimbelli and F. Passalacqua and W. J. Percival and C. Scarlata and E. Sefusatti and Y. Wang and M. Bonici and F. Oppizzi and N. Aghanim and B. Altieri and A. Amara and S. Andreon and N. Auricchio and C. Baccigalupi and M. Baldi and A. Balestra and S. Bardelli and P. Battaglia and A. Biviano and A. Bonchi and D. Bonino and M. Brescia and J. Brinchmann and S. Camera and G. Cañas-Herrera and V. Capobianco and V. F. Cardone and J. Carretero and S. Casas and M. Castellano and G. Castignani and S. Cavuoti and K. C. Chambers 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. Crocce and A. Da Silva and H. Degaudenzi and G. De Lucia and A. M. Di Giorgio and H. Dole and M. Douspis and F. Dubath and C. A. J. Duncan and X. Dupac and S. Dusini and S. Escoffier and M. Farina and R. Farinelli and F. Faustini and S. Ferriol and F. Finelli and S. Fotopoulou and N. Fourmanoit and M. Frailis and E. Franceschi and M. Fumana and S. Galeotta and K. George and W. Gillard and B. Gillis and C. Giocoli and J. Gracia-Carpio and A. Grazian and F. Grupp and L. Guzzo and S. V. H. Haugan and W. Holmes and F. Hormuth and A. Hornstrup and P. Hudelot and K. Jahnke and M. Jhabvala and B. Joachimi and E. Keihänen and S. Kermiche and A. Kiessling and M. Kilbinger and B. Kubik and M. Kümmel and M. Kunz and H. Kurki-Suonio and A. M. C. Le Brun and P. Liebing 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 S. Marcin and O. Marggraf and M. Martinelli and N. Martinet and F. Marulli and R. Massey and S. Maurogordato and E. Medinaceli and S. Mei and M. Melchior 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 J. W. Nightingale 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 E. Romelli and M. Roncarelli and E. Rossetti and R. Saglia and Z. Sakr and D. Sapone and B. Sartoris and J. A. Schewtschenko and P. Schneider and T. Schrabback and M. Scodeggio and A. Secroun and G. Seidel and M. Seiffert and S. Serrano and P. Simon and C. Sirignano and G. Sirri and L. Stanco and J. Steinwagner and C. Surace and P. Tallada-Crespí and D. Tavagnacco and A. N. Taylor 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 D. Vibert and J. Weller and G. Zamorani and F. M. Zerbi and E. Zucca and V. Allevato 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 W. G. Hartley and J. Martín-Fleitas and S. Matthew and N. Mauri and R. B. Metcalf and A. Pezzotta and M. Pöntinen and C. Porciani and V. Scottez and M. Sereno and M. Tenti and M. Viel and M. Wiesmann and Y. Akrami and S. Alvi and I. T. Andika and M. Archidiacono and F. Atrio-Barandela and S. Avila and A. Balaguera-Antolinez and C. Benoist and D. Bertacca and M. Bethermin and L. Blot and H. Böhringer and S. Borgani and M. L. Brown and A. Calabro and B. Camacho Quevedo and F. Caro and C. S. Carvalho and T. Castro and F. Cogato and A. R. Cooray and O. Cucciati and S. Davini and F. De Paolis and G. Desprez and A. Díaz-Sánchez and J. J. Diaz and S. Di Domizio and J. M. Diego and P. Dimauro and A. Enia and Y. Fang and A. G. Ferrari and A. Finoguenov and A. Fontana and A. Franco 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 S. Hemmati and C. Hernández-Monteagudo and H. Hildebrandt and J. Hjorth and S. Joudaki and J. J. E. Kajava and Y. Kang and V. Kansal and D. Karagiannis and K. Kiiveri and C. C. Kirkpatrick and S. Kruk and V. Le Brun and J. Le Graet and L. Legrand and M. Lembo and F. Lepori and G. Leroy and G. F. Lesci and L. Leuzzi and T. I. Liaudat and A. Loureiro and J. Macias-Perez and M. Magliocchetti and F. Mannucci and R. Maoli and C. J. A. P. Martins and L. Maurin and M. Miluzio and C. Moretti and G. Morgante and S. Nadathur and K. Naidoo and A. Navarro-Alsina and K. Paterson and L. Patrizii and A. Pisani and D. Potter and S. Quai and M. Radovich and P. -F. Rocci and S. Sacquegna and M. Sahlén and D. B. Sanders 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 A. Venhola and D. Vergani and G. Verza and N. A. Walton},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.04688},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

28 pages, published on A&A

R2 v1 2026-06-28T23:24:53.738Z