De-projecting astronomical surveys  [slides]

Abstract

Observations of celestial objects are inherently a 2D mapping on the sphere but astrophysical studies usually require the knowledge of 3D positions. For most extragalactic sources, this estimation relies on photometric redshifts which require strong assumptions and can lead to catastrophic failures. In this talk I will explain how it is possible to use clustering measurements to infer redshifts for virtually any type of extragalactic sources. I will show how to turn this idea into a new tool for redshift estimation and show how accurate it is. I will then present applications of this "clustering-redshift" technique to various datasets at UV, optical, IR and radio wavelengths.