Parametrising arbitrary galaxy morphologies: potentials and pitfalls

Abstract: We demonstrate that morphological observables (e.g. steepness of the radial light profile, ellipticity, asymmetry) are intertwined and cannot be measured independently of each other. We present strong arguments in favour of model-based parametrisation schemes, namely reliability assessment, disentanglement of morphological observables, and PSF modelling. Furthermore, we demonstrate that estimates of the concentration and Sersic index obtained from the Zurich Structure & Morphology catalogue are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. We also demonstrate that the incautious use of the concentration index for classification purposes can cause a severe loss of the discriminative information contained in a given data sample. Moreover, we show that, for poorly resolved galaxies, concentration index and M_20 suffer from strong discontinuities, i.e. similar morphologies are not necessarily mapped to neighbouring points in the parameter space. This limits the reliability of these parameters for classification purposes. Two-dimensional Sersic profiles accounting for centroid and ellipticity are identified as the currently most reliable parametrisation scheme in the regime of intermediate signal-to-noise ratios and resolutions, where asymmetries and substructures do not play an important role. We argue that basis functions provide good parametrisation schemes in the regimes of high signal-to-noise ratios and resolutions. Concerning Sersic profiles, we show that scale radii cannot be compared directly for profiles of different Sersic indices. Furthermore, we show that parameter spaces are typically highly nonlinear. This implies that significant caution is required when distance-based classificaton methods are used.