Use of the UGRIZY filters in the search for periodic signals

I am running a custom notebook in DP0 that searches for periodic signals in the Object table. In one case, I see a very wide separation between the results using the U filter and the other 5 filters. A plotted Lomb-Scargle periodogram shows a strong agreement with the 5 filters but my code is blending all 6 filters. The U contribution skews the results away from what the periodogram is suggesting. What document would be a good source of how we should be handling the filters in our research?

Hi @sdcorle1 ā€“ thanks for your message. Might your notebook be posted anywhere such as GitHub where itā€™d be possible to have a look at it? My sense is that the appropriate handling of u-band will depend strongly on the science application e.g., u-band will be very important for stellar photometric metallicities but not really relevant for late-type brown dwarfs. To understand how to handle u-band (and the other bands) for a given science application, the key items to consider would be the per-filter LSST throughput curves, the LSST per-filter depths, and the anticipated spectral energy distribution of the source(s) of interest. Thanks again.

Aaron, My notebook is located at notebooks/delegate-contributions-dp03/astrometry/PhotometrySolutionForTransitingPlanets.ipynb and it was adapted from DP02_07b_Variable_Star_Lightcurves. It is very much a work in progress. Can you access it directly from the Rubin Science Platform?

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The code that I am using is only in section 2.1.2

Typically V and B are used for exoplanet research. I see some literature regarding a similar mapping issue with SDSS data which also uses the URGIZY filters.

Iā€™m told that ā€˜gā€™ is the best band for exoplanet watching.

If Iā€™ve guessed your RSP user name correctly, then it appears that I donā€™t currently have read access to your home directory on RSP (I get a Permission denied message).

If it works with your schedule, you might consider attending tomorrowā€™s Rubin Science Assembly, which will be open for Q&A (though I personally canā€™t make it due to a conflicting meeting):

I donā€™t identify as an exoplanet expert, but I would expect this to vary depending on the host star population of interest e.g., TESS is going after nearby cool dwarfs with a relatively red bandpass centered near 800 nm.