Mock Quasar-Lyman-α forest data-sets for the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

Julian E. Bautista, Stephen Bailey, Andreu Font-Ribera, Matthew M. Pieri, Nicolas G. Busca, Jordi Miralda-Escudé, Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille, James Rich, Kyle Dawson, Yu Feng, Jian Ge, Satya Gontcho A. Gontcho, Shirley Ho, Jean Marc Le Goff, Pasquier Noterdaeme, Isabelle Pâris, Graziano Rossi, David Schlegel

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Abstract

We describe mock data-sets generated to simulate the high-redshift quasar sample in Data Release 11 (DR11) of the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). The mock spectra contain Lyα forest correlations useful for studying the 3D correlation function including Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO). They also include astrophysical effects such as quasar continuum diversity and high-density absorbers, instrumental effects such as noise and spectral resolution, as well as imperfections introduced by the SDSS pipeline treatment of the raw data. The Lyα forest BAO analysis of the BOSS collaboration, described in Delubac et al. 2014, has used these mock data-sets to develop and cross-check analysis procedures prior to performing the BAO analysis on real data, and for continued systematic cross checks. Tests presented here show that the simulations reproduce sufficiently well important characteristics of real spectra. These mock data-sets will be made available together with the data at the time of the Data Release 11.

Original languageEnglish
Article number060
JournalJournal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Volume2015
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 May 2015

Keywords

  • baryon acoustic oscillations
  • Lyman alpha forest
  • redshift surveys

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