The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: tomographic BAO analysis of DR12 combined sample in configuration space

We perform a tomographic baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) analysis using the two-point galaxy correlation function measured from the combined sample of Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 12 (BOSS DR12), which covers the redshift range of 0.2 < z < 0.75. Upon splitting the sample into multiple overlapping redshift slices to extract the redshift information of galaxy clustering, we obtain a measurement of DA(z)/rd and H(z)rd at nine effective redshifts with the full covariance matrix calibrated using MultiDark-Patchy mock catalogues. Using the reconstructed galaxy catalogues, we obtain the precision of 1.3–2.2 per cent for DA(z)/rd and 2.1–6.0 per cent for H(z)rd. To quantify the gain from the tomographic information, we compare the constraints on the cosmological parameters using our nine-bin BAO measurements, the consensus three-bin BAO and redshift space distortion measurements at three effective redshifts in Alam et al., and the non-tomographic (one-bin) BAO measurement at a single effective redshift. Comparing the nine-bin with one-bin constraint result, it can improve the dark energy Figure of Merit by a factor of 1.24 for the Chevallier–Polarski–Linder parametrization for equation-of-state parameter wDE. The errors of w0 and wa from nine-bin constraints are slightly improved when compared to the three-bin constraint result.