The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III
Abstract
The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) is designed to measure the scale of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the clustering of matter over a larger volume than the combined efforts of all previous spectroscopic surveys of large-scale structure. BOSS uses 1.5 million luminous galaxies as faint as i = 19.9 over 10,000 deg2 to measure BAO to redshifts z < 0.7. Observations of neutral hydrogen in the Lyα forest in more than 150,000 quasar spectra (g < 22) will constrain BAO over the redshift range 2.15 < z < 3.5. Early results from BOSS include the first detection of the large-scale three-dimensional clustering of the Lyα forest and a strong detection from the Data Release 9 data set of the BAO in the clustering of massive galaxies at an effective redshift z = 0.57. We project that BOSS will yield measurements of the angular diameter distance dA to an accuracy of 1.0% at redshifts z = 0.3 and z = 0.57 and measurements of H(z) to 1.8% and 1.7% at the same redshifts. Forecasts for Lyα forest constraints predict a measurement of an overall dilation factor that scales the highly degenerate DA (z) and H –1(z) parameters to an accuracy of 1.9% at z ~ 2.5 when the survey is complete. Here, we provide an overview of the selection of spectroscopic targets, planning of observations, and analysis of data and data quality of BOSS.
Citation
Dawson , K S , Schlegel , D J , Ahn , C P , Anderson , S F , Aubourg , É , Bailey , S , Barkhouser , R H , Bautista , J E , Beifiori , A , Berlind , A A , Bhardwaj , V , Bizyaev , D , Blake , C H , Blanton , M R , Blomqvist , M , Bolton , A S , Borde , A , Bovy , J , Brandt , W N , Brewington , H , Brinkmann , J , Brown , P J , Brownstein , J R , Bundy , K , Busca , N G , Carithers , W , Carnero , A R , Carr , M A , Chen , Y , Comparat , J , Connolly , N , Cope , F , Croft , R A C , Cuesta , A J , da Costa , L N , Davenport , J R A , Delubac , T , de Putter , R , Dhital , S , Ealet , A , Ebelke , G L , Eisenstein , D J , Escoffier , S , Fan , X , Filiz Ak , N , Finley , H , Font-Ribera , A , Génova-Santos , R , Gunn , J E , Guo , H , Haggard , D , Hall , P B , Hamilton , J-C , Harris , B , Harris , D W , Ho , S , Hogg , D W , Holder , D , Honscheid , K , Huehnerhoff , J , Jordan , B , Jordan , W P , Kauffmann , G , Kazin , E A , Kirkby , D , Klaene , M A , Kneib , J-P , Le Goff , J-M , Lee , K-G , Long , D C , Loomis , C P , Lundgren , B , Lupton , R H , Maia , M A G , Makler , M , Malanushenko , E , Malanushenko , V , Mandelbaum , R , Manera , M , Maraston , C , Margala , D , Masters , K L , McBride , C K , McDonald , P , McGreer , I D , McMahon , R G , Mena , O , Miralda-Escudé , J , Montero-Dorta , A D , Montesano , F , Muna , D , Myers , A D , Naugle , T , Nichol , R C , Noterdaeme , P , Nuza , S E , Olmstead , M D , Oravetz , A , Oravetz , D J , Owen , R , Padmanabhan , N , Palanque-Delabrouille , N , Pan , K , Parejko , J K , Pâris , I , Percival , W J , Pérez-Fournon , I , Pérez-Ràfols , I , Petitjean , P , Pfaffenberger , R , Pforr , J , Pieri , M M , Prada , F , Price-Whelan , A M , Raddick , M J , Rebolo , R , Rich , J , Richards , G T , Rockosi , C M , Roe , N A , Ross , A J , Ross , N P , Rossi , G , Rubiño-Martin , J A , Samushia , L , Sánchez , A G , Sayres , C , Schmidt , S J , Schneider , D P , Scóccola , C G , Seo , H-J , Shelden , A , Sheldon , E , Shen , Y , Shu , Y , Slosar , A , Smee , S A , Snedden , S A , Stauffer , F , Steele , O , Strauss , M A , Streblyanska , A , Suzuki , N , Swanson , M E C , Tal , T , Tanaka , M , Thomas , D , Tinker , J L , Tojeiro , R , Tremonti , C A , Vargas Magaña , M , Verde , L , Viel , M , Wake , D A , Watson , M , Weaver , B A , Weinberg , D H , Weiner , B J , West , A A , White , M , Wood-Vasey , W M , Yeche , C , Zehavi , I , Zhao , G-B & Zheng , Z 2012 , ' The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III ' , Astronomical Journal , vol. 145 , no. 1 , 10 . https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/145/1/10
Publication
Astronomical Journal
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0004-6256Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at: https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/145/1/10
Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.