Diffusion-based Galaxy Simulations for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope High Latitude Survey
May 2026 • 2026ApJ..1003...42S
Abstract • Future weak lensing analyses with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) will require highly realistic image simulations to control shear systematics at unprecedented precision. A key limitation of existing approaches is their reliance on analytic light-profile models, which cannot fully capture the complex, nonparametric morphologies revealed by high-resolution observations. We present a diffusion-based framework for generating realistic galaxy image simulations tailored to the weak lensing requirements of the Roman High Latitude Survey. We construct Roman-like galaxy images from multiband James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam observations of the GOODS-S and GOODS-N fields, transforming them into the Roman observing regime through point-spread function matching, pixel-scale conversion, and interloper masking that preserves correlated noise properties. These data are used to train a denoising diffusion probabilistic model to generate multiband galaxy postage stamps in the Roman Y, J, and H filters. We validate the generated sample against an independent dataset using a consistent photometric pipeline, comparing key galaxy observables including magnitude, size, ellipticity, peak surface brightness, and three-band colors. The generated galaxies reproduce both the marginal distributions and the covariance structure of these properties, with only modest deviations in low-occupancy regions of parameter space. These results demonstrate that diffusion models provide a scalable and physically motivated alternative to analytic simulations, enabling high-fidelity galaxy populations for Roman weak lensing calibration and, more generally, for survey preparation in upcoming cosmological experiments.
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