A0931
Title: Discovering extremely faint galaxies using MATHPOP
Authors: Dayi Li - University of Toronto (Canada) [presenting]
Abstract: The aim is to present MATHPOP: A new, mark-dependent thinned point process that infers the number of old star clusters (globular clusters, or GCs) around ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) and low-surface brightness galaxies. Many UDGs have unusually high GC numbers relative to their surface brightness, but standard GC-count methods struggle with photometric uncertainties, membership ambiguities, and assumptions about the GC luminosity function (GCLF). MATHPOP jointly models the spatial and brightness distributions of GCs while minimizing assumptions. MATHPOP is validated against traditional methods using 40 known UDGs and low-surface brightness galaxies in the Perseus galaxy cluster, and has also discovered two intriguing galaxies that appear to have much brighter than average GC populations.
