Statistical Effects of Synthetic Template Mismatch with Model DEIMOS Observations

High-precision kinematics of individual stars in Milky Way satellite galaxies and globular clusters is crucial for studies of galaxy formation, cosmology, alternate gravity, and dark matter. We present a rigorous method to match model DEIMOS observations of such targets with synthetic template spectra, in order to deduce the radial velocities and [Fe/H] abundances. We added noise to create a model spectrum, fitted templates with slightly different parameters to it, and calculated the best-match velocity and the goodness of the fit. We confirmed that the best fit occurs when the template and the model are the same spectrum and that the greater the differences of the template and the model the worse the fit becomes. Our method introduces no measurable bias, contains small uncertainties even in the case of template-model mismatch, and suggests that the step size in our parameter space was well chosen. This process can be used to match real DEIMOS observations with synthetic templates from our library.