scholarly journals Baryon acoustic oscillations from the cross-correlation of Lyα absorption and quasars in eBOSS DR14

2019 ◽  
Vol 629 ◽  
pp. A86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Blomqvist ◽  
Hélion du Mas des Bourboux ◽  
Nicolás G. Busca ◽  
Victoria de Sainte Agathe ◽  
James Rich ◽  
...  

We present a measurement of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale at redshift z = 2.35 from the three-dimensional correlation of Lyman-α (Lyα) forest absorption and quasars. The study uses 266 590 quasars in the redshift range 1.77 <  z <  3.5 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 14 (DR14). The sample includes the first two years of observations by the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), providing new quasars and re-observations of BOSS quasars for improved statistical precision. Statistics are further improved by including Lyα absorption occurring in the Lyβ wavelength band of the spectra. From the measured BAO peak position along and across the line of sight, we determined the Hubble distance DH and the comoving angular diameter distance DM relative to the sound horizon at the drag epoch rd: DH(z = 2.35)/rd = 9.20 ± 0.36 and DM(z = 2.35)/rd = 36.3 ± 1.8. These results are consistent at 1.5σ with the prediction of the best-fit spatially-flat cosmological model with the cosmological constant reported for the Planck (2016) analysis of cosmic microwave background anisotropies. Combined with the Lyα auto-correlation measurement presented in a companion paper, the BAO measurements at z = 2.34 are within 1.7σ of the predictions of this model.

2019 ◽  
Vol 629 ◽  
pp. A85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria de Sainte Agathe ◽  
Christophe Balland ◽  
Hélion du Mas des Bourboux ◽  
Nicolás G. Busca ◽  
Michael Blomqvist ◽  
...  

We measure the imprint of primordial baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) in the correlation function of Lyα absorption in quasar spectra from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) and the extended BOSS (eBOSS) in Data Release 14 (DR14) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-IV. In addition to 179 965 spectra with absorption in the Lyman-α (Lyα) region, we use Lyα absorption in the Lyman-β region of 56 154 spectra for the first time. We measure the Hubble distance, DH, and the comoving angular diameter distance, DM, relative to the sound horizon at the drag epoch rd at an effective redshift z = 2.34. Using a physical model of the correlation function outside the BAO peak, we find DH(2.34)/rd = 8.86 ± 0.29 and DM(2.34)/rd = 37.41 ± 1.86, within 1σ from the flat-ΛCDM model consistent with CMB anisotropy measurements. With the addition of polynomial “broadband” terms, the results remain within one standard deviation of the CMB-inspired model. Combined with the quasar-Lyα cross-correlation measurement presented in a companion paper, the BAO measurements at z = 2.35 are within 1.7σ of the predictions of this model.


2017 ◽  
Vol 608 ◽  
pp. A130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélion du Mas des Bourboux ◽  
Jean-Marc Le Goff ◽  
Michael Blomqvist ◽  
Nicolás G. Busca ◽  
Julien Guy ◽  
...  

We present a measurement of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the cross-correlation of quasars with the Lyα-forest flux transmission at a mean redshift of z = 2.40. The measurement uses the complete Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) data sample: 168 889 forests and 234 367 quasars from the SDSS data release DR12. In addition to the statistical improvement on our previous study using DR11, we have implemented numerous improvements at the analysis level enabling a more accurate measurement of this cross-correlation. We have also developed the first simulations of the cross-correlation that allow us to test different aspects of our data analysis and to search for potential systematic errors in the determination of the BAO peak position. We measure the two ratios DH(z = 2.40) /rd = 9.01 ± 0.36 and DM(z = 2.40) /rd = 35.7 ± 1.7, where the errors include marginalization over the non-linear velocity of quasars and the cross-correlation of metals and quasars, among other effects. These results are within 1.8σ of the prediction of the flat-ΛCDM model describing the observed cosmic microwave background anisotropies. We combine this study with the Lyα-forest auto-correlation function, yielding DH(z = 2.40) /rd = 8.94 ± 0.22 and DM(z = 2.40) /rd = 36.6 ± 1.2, within 2.3σ of the same flat-ΛCDM model.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-18
Author(s):  
J. R. Malla ◽  
B. Aryal ◽  
W. Saurer

We present a study of spin vector orientation of 1198 SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) galaxies in Super cluster S[195+027+0022] having red shift 0.07 to 0.09. The databases of these galaxies are taken from SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) 7th and 9th data release. We have converted two dimensional data to three-dimensional by Godlowskian Transformation using position angle-inclination angle method. We intend to find non-random effects in the spatial orientation of galaxies in Super cluster. No preferred alignment of angular momentum vectors (spin vector) is noticed, supporting Hierarchy model of galaxy formation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (1) ◽  
pp. 269-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Smith ◽  
Etienne Burtin ◽  
Jiamin Hou ◽  
Richard Neveux ◽  
Ashley J Ross ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The growth rate and expansion history of the Universe can be measured from large galaxy redshift surveys using the Alcock–Paczynski effect. We validate the Redshift Space Distortion models used in the final analysis of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) Data Release 16 quasar clustering sample, in configuration and Fourier space, using a series of halo occupation distribution mock catalogues generated using the OuterRim N-body simulation. We test three models on a series of non-blind mocks, in the OuterRim cosmology, and blind mocks, which have been rescaled to new cosmologies, and investigate the effects of redshift smearing and catastrophic redshifts. We find that for the non-blind mocks, the models are able to recover fσ8 to within 3 per cent and α∥ and α⊥ to within 1 per cent. The scatter in the measurements is larger for the blind mocks, due to the assumption of an incorrect fiducial cosmology. From this mock challenge, we find that all three models perform well, with similar systematic errors on fσ8, α∥, and α⊥ at the level of $\sigma _{f\sigma _8}=0.013$, $\sigma _{\alpha _\parallel }=0.012$, and $\sigma _{\alpha _\bot }=0.008$. The systematic error on the combined consensus is $\sigma _{f\sigma _8}=0.011$, $\sigma _{\alpha _\parallel }=0.008$, and $\sigma _{\alpha _\bot }=0.005$, which is used in the final DR16 analysis. For baryon acoustic oscillation fits in configuration and Fourier space, we take conservative systematic errors of $\sigma _{\alpha _\parallel }=0.010$ and $\sigma _{\alpha _\bot }=0.007$.


2020 ◽  
Vol 493 (3) ◽  
pp. 4078-4093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel R Hinton ◽  
Cullan Howlett ◽  
Tamara M Davis

ABSTRACT We compare the performance of four state-of-the-art models for extracting isotropic measurements of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale. To do this, we created a new, public, modular code barry, which contains data sets, model fitting tools, and model implementations incorporating different descriptions of non-linear physics and algorithms for isolating the BAO feature. These are then evaluated for bias, correlation, and fitting strength using mock power spectra and correlation functions developed for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12. Our main findings are as follows: (1) all of the models can recover unbiased constraints when fit to the pre- and post-reconstruction simulations. (2) Models that provide physical descriptions of the damping of the BAO feature (using e.g. standard perturbation or effective-field theory arguments) report smaller errors on average, although the distribution of mock χ2 values indicates these are underestimated. (3) Allowing the BAO damping scale to vary can provide tighter constraints for some mocks, but is an artificial improvement that only arises when noise randomly sharpens the BAO peak. (4) Unlike recent claims in the literature when utilizing a BAO Extractor technique, we find no improvement in the accuracy of the recovered BAO scale. (5) We implement a procedure for combining all models into a single consensus result that improves over the standard method without obviously underestimating the uncertainties. Overall, barry provides a framework for performing the cosmological analyses for upcoming surveys, and for rapidly testing and validating new models.


2020 ◽  
Vol 492 (3) ◽  
pp. 4469-4476 ◽  
Author(s):  
E de Carvalho ◽  
A Bernui ◽  
H S Xavier ◽  
C P Novaes

ABSTRACT The clustering properties of the Universe at large scales are currently being probed at various redshifts through several cosmological tracers and with diverse statistical estimators. Here we use the three-point angular correlation function (3PACF) to probe the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) features in the quasars catalogue from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12, with mean redshift $\overline{z} = 2.225$, detecting the BAO imprint with a statistical significance of $2.9 \sigma$, obtained using lognormal mocks. Following a quasi-model-independent approach for the 3PACF, we find the BAO transversal signature for triangles with sides θ1 = $1{^{\circ}_{.}}0$ and θ2 = $1{^{\circ}_{.}}5$ and the angle between them of α = 1.59 ± 0.17 rad, a value that corresponds to the angular BAO scale $\theta_{\rm BAO}=1{^{\circ}_{.}}82 \pm 0{^{\circ}_{.}}21$, in excellent agreement with the value found in a recent work ($\theta_{\rm BAO}=1{^{\circ}_{.}}77 \pm 0{^{\circ}_{.}}31$) applying the two-point angular correlation function (2PACF) to similar data. Moreover, we performed two types of test: one to confirm the robustness of the BAO signal in the 3PACF through random displacements in the data set, and the other to verify the suitability of our random samples, a null test that in fact does not show any signature that could bias our results.


2013 ◽  
Vol 766 (2) ◽  
pp. 79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey E. Koposov ◽  
Vasily Belokurov ◽  
N. Wyn Evans

Author(s):  
Dave Higdon ◽  
Katrin Heitmann ◽  
Charles Nakhleh ◽  
Salman Habib

This article focuses on the use of a Bayesian approach that combines simulations and physical observations to estimate cosmological parameters. It begins with an overview of the Λ-cold dark matter (CDM) model, the simplest cosmological model in agreement with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and largescale structure analysis. The CDM model is determined by a small number of parameters which control the composition, expansion and fluctuations of the universe. The present study aims to learn about the values of these parameters using measurements from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Computationally intensive simulation results are combined with measurements from the SDSS to infer about a subset of the parameters that control the CDM model. The article also describes a statistical framework used to determine a posterior distribution for these cosmological parameters and concludes by showing how it can be extended to include data from diverse data sources.


2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (1) ◽  
pp. 1201-1221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiamin Hou ◽  
Ariel G Sánchez ◽  
Ashley J Ross ◽  
Alex Smith ◽  
Richard Neveux ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We measure the anisotropic clustering of the quasar sample from Data Release 16 (DR16) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS). A sample of 343 708 spectroscopically confirmed quasars between redshift 0.8 &lt; z &lt; 2.2 are used as tracers of the underlying dark matter field. In comparison with DR14 sample, the final sample doubles the number of objects as well as the survey area. In this paper, we present the analysis in configuration space by measuring the two-point correlation function and decomposing it using the Legendre polynomials. For the full-shape analysis of the Legendre multipole moments, we measure the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) distance and the growth rate of the cosmic structure. At an effective redshift of zeff = 1.48, we measure the comoving angular diameter distance DM(zeff)/rdrag = 30.66 ± 0.88, the Hubble distance DH(zeff)/rdrag = 13.11 ± 0.52, and the product of the linear growth rate and the rms linear mass fluctuation on scales of $8 \, h^{-1}\, {\rm Mpc}$, fσ8(zeff) = 0.439 ± 0.048. The accuracy of these measurements is confirmed using an extensive set of mock simulations developed for the quasar sample. The uncertainties on the distance and growth rate measurements have been reduced substantially (∼45 and ∼30 per cent) with respect to the DR14 results. We also perform a BAO-only analysis to cross check the robustness of the methodology of the full-shape analysis. Combining our analysis with the Fourier-space analysis, we arrive at $D^{{\bf c}}_{\rm M}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 30.21 \pm 0.79$, $D^{{\bf c}}_{\rm H}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 13.23 \pm 0.47$, and $f\sigma _8^{{\bf c}}(z_{\rm eff}) = 0.462 \pm 0.045$.


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