Effect of inclination of galaxies on photometric redshift

Abstract

The inclination of galaxies induces both reddening and extinction to their observed spectral energy distribution, which in turn impact the derived properties of the galaxies. Here we report a significant dependence of the error in photometric redshift (photo-z) on the inclination of disk galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The bias in the photo-z based on the template-fitting approach increases from -0.015 in face-on to 0.021 in edge-on galaxies. A Principal Component Analysis on the full sample of photometry reveals the inclination of the galaxies to be represented by the second mode. The corresponding eigenspectrum resembles an extinction curve. The isolation of the inclination effect in a low-order mode demonstrates the significant reddening induced on the observed colors, leading to the over-estimated photo-z in galaxies of high inclinations. We present approaches to correct the photo-z and the other properties of the disk galaxies against the inclination effect. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.