The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample : first measurement of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations between redshift 0.8 and 2.2
Abstract
We present measurements of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) scale in redshift-space using the clustering of quasars. We consider a sample of 147 000 quasars from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) distributed over 2044 square degrees with redshifts 0.8 < z < 2.2 and measure their spherically-averaged clustering in both configuration and Fourier space. Our observational data set and the 1400 simulated realizations of the dataset allow us to detect a preference for BAO that is greater than 2.8σ. We determine the spherically averaged BAO distance to z = 1.52 to 3.8 per cent precision:DV(z=1.52)=3843±147(rd/rd,fid) Mpc. This is the first time the location of the BAO feature has been measured between redshifts 1 and 2. Our result is fully consistent with the prediction obtained by extrapolating the Planck flat ΛCDM best-fitting cosmology. All of our results are consistent with basic large-scale structure (LSS) theory, confirming quasars to be a reliable tracer of LSS, and provide a starting point for numerous cosmological tests to be performed with eBOSS quasar samples. We combine our result with previous, independent, BAO distance measurements to construct an updated BAO distance-ladder. Using these BAO data alone and marginalizing over the length of the standard ruler, we find ΩΛ > 0 at 6.6σ significance when testing a ΛCDM model with free curvature.
Citation
Ata , M , Baumgarten , F , Bautista , J , Beutler , F , Bizyaev , D , Blanton , M R , Blazek , J A , Bolton , A S , Brinkmann , J , Brownstein , J R , Burtin , E , Chuang , C-H , Comparat , J , Dawson , K S , de la Macorra , A , Du , W , du Mas des Bourboux , H , Eisenstein , D J , Gil-Marin , H , Grabowski , K , Guy , J , Hand , N , Ho , S , Hutchinson , T A , Ivanov , M M , Kitaura , F-S , Kneib , J-P , Laurent , P , Le Goff , J-M , McEwen , J E , Mueller , E-M , Myers , A D , Newman , J A , Palanque-Delabrouille , N , Pan , K , Paris , I , Pellejero-Ibanez , M , Percival , W J , Petitjean , P , Prada , F , Prakash , A , Rodriguez-Torres , S A , Ross , A J , Rossi , G , Ruggeri , R , Sanchez , A G , Satpathy , S , Schlegel , D J , Schneider , D P , Seo , H-J , Slosar , A , Streblyanska , A , Tinker , J L , Tojeiro , R , Vargas Magana , M , Vivek , M , Wang , Y , Yeche , C , Yu , L , Zarrouk , P , Zhao , C , Zhao , G-B & Zhu , F 2018 , ' The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample : first measurement of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations between redshift 0.8 and 2.2 ' , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , vol. 473 , no. 4 , pp. 4773-4794 . https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx2630
Publication
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0035-8711Type
Journal article
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