Propagating Residual Biases in Cosmic Shear Power Spectra

Abstract

In this paper we derive a full expression for the propagation of multiplicative and additive shape measurement biases into the cosmic shear power spectrum. In doing so we identify several new terms that are associated with selection effects, as well as cross-correlation terms between the multiplicative and additive biases and the shear field. The computation of the resulting bias in the shear power spectrum scales as the fifth power of the maximum multipole considered. Consequently the calculation is unfeasible for large l-modes, and the only tractable way to assess the full impact of shape measurement biases on cosmic shear power spectrum is through forward modelling of the effects. To linear order in bias parameters the shear power spectrum is only affected by the mean of the multiplicative bias field over a survey and the cross correlation between the additive bias field and the shear field. If the mean multiplicative bias is zero then second order convolutive terms are expected to be orders of magnitude smaller.