Exploring the population of H{α} emitters in the Southern Photometric Local Universe Survey (S-PLUS)

GUTIÉRREZ-SOTO, L A; LOPES DE OLIVEIRA, R. ; AKRAS, S; GONÇALVES, D R; MENDES DE OLIVEIRA, C.; SMITH CASTELLI, A.; FAIFER, F.

Congreso; 64 Reunión Anual de la Asociación Argentina de Astronomía; 2022

Emission lines are key tracers of a myriad of physical processes in Astrophysics, from planetary to supermassive extragalactic systems. We have carried out a search for H{α} emitters in the ongoing S-PLUS survey, which is mapping the Southern hemisphere at high galactic latitudes (| b | > 30~deg) in twelve photometric bands. Excess emission in such a line was evidenced by contrasting the magnitude from the narrow band filter J0660 and those of the broadband r and i filters through the colour-colour (r-J0660) versus (r-i) diagram. Furthermore, unsupervised machine learning (clustering) applied to the colours (r-i) and (g-z) allowed us to separate the H{α} emitter candidates into two subgroups: one with bluer and another one with redder sources. By adopting a "soft" clustering approach, we assign probabilities for each source in our final sample to belong to either the blue or red population. The method, which utilizes multi-colour data, has proven to be an effective tool for detecting and classifying new H{α} emitters, including planetary nebulae, H II regions, young stellar objects, symbiotic star systems, cataclysmic variables, Seyfert galaxies, and quasars.