CSST Large Scale Structure Analysis Pipeline: III. Emission-line Redshift Measurement for Slitless Spectra

Abstract

The China Space Station Telescope (CSST) is a forthcoming space-based optical telescope designed to co-orbit with the Chinese Space Station. With a planned slitless spectroscopic survey spanning a broad wavelength range of $255-1000$nm and an average spectral resolution exceeding 200, the CSST holds significant potential for cosmic large-scale structure analysis. In this study, we focus on redshift determinations from slitless spectra through emission line analysis within the CSST framework. Our tailored redshift measurement process involves identifying emission lines in one-dimensional slitless spectra, aligning observed wavelengths with their rest-frame counterparts from prominent galaxy emissions, and calculating wavelength shifts to determine redshifts accurately. To validate our redshift measurement algorithm, we leverage simulated spectra generated by the CSST emulator for slitless spectroscopy. The outcomes demonstrate a remarkable redshift completeness exceeding 95 per cent for emission line galaxies (ELGs), alongside a purity surpassing 85 per cent. The redshift uncertainty remains impressively below than $\sim 0.001$. Notably, when concentrating on galaxies with more than three matched emission lines, the completeness of ELGs and the purity of measurable galaxies can reach 98 per cent and 97 per cent, respectively. Furthermore, we explore the influence of parameters like magnitude, spectral signal-to-noise ratio, and redshift on redshift completeness and purity. The discussion also delves into redshift degeneracies stemming from emission-line matching confusion. Our developed redshift measurement process will be applied to extensive simulated datasets and forthcoming CSST slitless spectroscopic observations for further cosmological and extragalactic analyses.