TY - JOUR
T1 - Baryon acoustic oscillations from the complete SDSS-III Ly α -quasar cross-correlation function at z = 2.4
AU - Du Mas Des Bourboux, Hélion
AU - Le Goff, Jean Marc
AU - Blomqvist, Michael
AU - Busca, Nicolás G.
AU - Guy, Julien
AU - Rich, James
AU - Yèche, Christophe
AU - Bautista, Julian E.
AU - Burtin, Étienne
AU - Dawson, Kyle S.
AU - Eisenstein, Daniel J.
AU - Font-Ribera, Andreu
AU - Kirkby, David
AU - Miralda-Escudé, Jordi
AU - Noterdaeme, Pasquier
AU - Palanque-Delabrouille, Nathalie
AU - Pâris, Isabelle
AU - Petitjean, Patrick
AU - Pérez-Ràfols, Ignasi
AU - Pieri, Matthew M.
AU - Ross, Nicholas P.
AU - Schlegel, David J.
AU - Schneider, Donald P.
AU - Slosar, Anz E.
AU - Weinberg, David H.
AU - Zarrouk, Pauline
PY - 2017/12/1
Y1 - 2017/12/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Cosmological parameters
KW - Dark energy
KW - Large-scale structure of Universe
KW - RCUK
KW - STFC
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85039982754&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1051/0004-6361/201731731
DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/201731731
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85039982754
SN - 0004-6361
VL - 608
JO - Astronomy and Astrophysics
JF - Astronomy and Astrophysics
M1 - A130
ER -