Measurement of baryon acoustic oscillations in the Lyman-α forest fluctuations in BOSS data release 9

By A. Slosar, V. Irvsivc, David Kirkby, S. Bailey, N. Busca, T. Delubac, J. Rich, 'Eric Aubourg, Julián Bautista, V. Bhardwaj and 34 more. 2013

240 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We use the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release 9 (DR9) to detect and measure the position of the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) feature in the three-dimensional correlation function in the Lyman-α flux fluctuations at a redshift zeff = 2.4. The feature is clearly detected at significance between 3 and 5 sigma (depending on the broadband model and method of error covariance matrix estimation) and is consistent with predictions of the standard ΛCDM model. We assess the biases in our method, stability of the error covariance matrix and possible systematic effects. We fit the resulting correlation function with several models that decouple the broadband and acoustic scale information. For an isotropic dilation factor, we measure 100 × (αiso − 1) = −1.6+2.0 +4.3 +7.4−2.0 −4.1 −6.8 (stat.) ±1.0 (syst.) (multiple statistical errors denote 1,2 and 3 sigma confidence limits) with respect to the acoustic scale in the fiducial cosmological model (flat ΛCDM with Ωm = 0.27, h = 0.7). When fitting separately for the radial and transversal dilation factors we find marginalised constraints 100 × (α|| − 1) = −1.3+3.5 +7.6 +12.3−3.3 −6.7 −10.2 (stat.) ±2.0 (syst.) and 100 × (α⊥ − 1) = −2.2+7.4 +17−7.1 −15 (stat.) ±3.0 (syst.). The dilation factor measurements are significantly correlated with cross-correlation coefficient of ~ −0.55. Errors become significantly non-Gaussian for deviations over 3 standard deviations from best fit value. Because of the data cuts and analysis method, these measurements give tighter constraints than a previous BAO analysis of the BOSS DR9 Lyman-α sample, providing an important consistency test of the standard cosmological model in a new redshift regime.

Subfields: Applied Mathematics, Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7a93561a010eb071a9f7435ec24bb93f481d6c4c

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Citations in the corpus

The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: cosmological implications of the full shape of the clustering wedges in the data release 10 and 11 galaxy samples (2013, methodology): “…of Beutler et al. (2011) from the large-scale correlation function of the 6dF Galaxy Survey (Jones et al. 2009) corresponding to z = 0.106, and the distance measurements inferred from the Lyman α forest in BOSS (Busca et al. 2013; Kirkby et al. 2013; Slosar et al. 2013), corresponding to z = 2.4.”
Improved cosmological constraints from a joint analysis of the SDSS-II and SNLS supernova samples (2014, methodology): “The BAO scale has now been detected in the correlation function of various galaxy surveys (Eisenstein et al. 2005; Beutler et al. 2011; Blake et al. 2011; Anderson et al. 2012), as well as in the Lyα forest of distant quasars (Busca et al. 2013; Slosar et al. 2013).”
Extragalactic science, cosmology, and Galactic archaeology with the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (2012, unknown): “1 <∼ z <∼ 3.4 (Slosar et al. 2013).”
The one-dimensional Lyα forest power spectrum from BOSS (2013, background): “…power spectrum has been extended up to the scales of the Baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), yielding the highest redshift measurement of the BAO peak position and providing new constraints on the history of the expansion of the universe (Busca et al. 2013; Slosar et al. 2013; Kirkby et al. 2013).”
THE SDSS-IV EXTENDED BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: OVERVIEW AND EARLY DATA (2015, methodology): “Using an alternative analysis of the same quasar sample that included some peculiar quasars and larger wavelength coverage, Slosar et al. (2013) reported a 2% measurement error on the distance.”
Baryon acoustic oscillations from the complete SDSS-III Ly$\alpha$-quasar cross-correlation function at $z=2.4$ (2017, background): “The BAO peak has been detected in the transmission auto-correlation of SDSS Lyα forests (Busca et al. 2013; Slosar et al. 2013; Kirkby et al. 2013; Delubac et al. 2015; Bautista et al. 2017).”
Observational probes of cosmic acceleration (2012, background): “Using the first third of this data set, Busca et al. (2012) and Slosar et al. (2013) report the first BAO detections in the Lyα forest, and the first detections at any z > 1, with precision (2-3% on an isotropic dilation factor) that is roughly in line with theoretical expectations.”
The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Testing gravity with redshift-space distortions using the power spectrum multipoles (2013, background): “The BAO scale has now been detected at several different redshifts (Eisenstein et al. 2005; Beutler et al. 2011; Blake et al. 2011b; Anderson et al. 2012, 2013b; Padmanabhan et al. 2012; Slosar et al. 2013).”
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar catalog: tenth data release (2013, methodology): “The first detection of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) signal in the clustering of the IGM was obtained from the spectra of the ∼60 000 high redshift quasars listed in the DR9Q catalog (Busca et al. 2013; Slosar et al. 2013).”
THE SDSS-IV EXTENDED BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: QUASAR TARGET SELECTION (2015, methodology): “In addition, analyses of the Lyman-α Forest with BOSS have provided substantial new insights into cosmological constraints (e.g. Slosar et al. 2011, 2013; Noterdaeme et al. 2012; Busca et al. 2013; Kirkby et al. 2013; Palanque-Delabrouille et al. 2013b; Font-Ribera et al. 2014; Delubac et al.…”
Baryon acoustic oscillations at z = 2.34 from the correlations of Lyα absorption in eBOSS DR14 (2019, methodology): “The first detections of a BAO peak in the Lyα auto-correlation function (Busca et al. 2013; Slosar et al. 2013) used data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data-release 9 (DR9), at an effective redshift of z = 2.3.”
The Completed SDSS-IV Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations with Lyα Forests (2020, methodology): “This method was used in multiple analyses of the Lyα autocorrelation in BOSS (Slosar et al. 2011, 2013; Busca et al. 2013; Delubac et al. 2015; Bautista et al. 2017), and it enabled multiple tests of potential systematics and the validation of the BAO analysis pipeline.”
New Constraints on the free-streaming of warm dark matter from intermediate and small scale Lyman-$\alpha$ forest data (2017, methodology): “The intergalactic medium (IGM) and its main observable manifestation, the Lyman-α forest (see [1]), have been used as unique tools to address key cosmological issues: the free-streaming of dark matter and in particular departures from cold dark matter, generally labelled as warm dark matter (WDM) [2”
Target Selection and Validation of DESI Quasars (2022, background): “This field of research has developed over more than two decades (McDonald 2003; Busca et al. 2013; Slosar et al. 2013) and reached its peak with the two recent publications of eBOSS (Chabanier et al. 2019; du Mas des Bourboux et al. 2020).”