Quantify systematic differences between mock-observed and simulation-derived properties across surveys

Quantify the magnitude of systematic differences between dwarf galaxy properties estimated via observational survey pipelines applied to resolved-star photometry and the corresponding values derived directly from simulations, across a wide range of surveys and galaxy distances.

Background

The paper demonstrates that hierarchical assembly creates multi-component light profiles leading to systematic offsets when recovering structural parameters with methods assuming single-component profiles, and that CMD shot noise can introduce significant uncertainties when few stars are observable.

These findings imply that standard observational pipelines may yield biased estimates (e.g., total V-band magnitude, half-light radius, and mean iron abundance) compared to simulation-derived quantities, motivating a systematic quantification of these differences across diverse survey conditions.