The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: baryon acoustic oscillations in the Data Releases 10 and 11 Galaxy samples

Lauren Anderson, Eric Aubourg, Stephen Bailey, Florian Beutler, Vaishali Bhardwaj, Michael Blanton, Adam S. Bolton, J. Brinkmann, Joel R. Brownstein, Angela Burden, Chia-Hsun Chuang, Antonio J. Cuesta, Kyle S. Dawson, Daniel J. Eisenstein, Stephanie Escoffier, James E. Gunn, Hong Guo, Shirley Ho, Klaus Honscheid, Cullan HowlettDavid Kirkby, Robert H. Lupton, Marc Manera, Claudia Maraston, Cameron K. McBride, Olga Mena, Francesco Montesano, Robert C. Nichol, Sebastian E. Nuza, Matthew D. Olmstead, Nikhil Padmanabhan, Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille, John Parejko, Will J. Percival, Patrick Petitjean, Francisco Prada, Adrian M. Price-Whelan, Beth Reid, Natalie A. Roe, Ashley J. Ross, Nicholas P. Ross, Cristiano G. Sabiu, Shun Saito, Lado Samushia, Ariel G. Sanchez, David J. Schlegel, Donald P. Schneider, Claudia G. Scoccola, Hee-Jong Seo, Ramin A. Skibba, Michael A. Strauss, Molly E. C. Swanson, Daniel Thomas, Jeremy L. Tinker, Rita Tojeiro, Mariana Vargas Magana, Licia Verde, David A. Wake, Benjamin A. Weaver, David H. Weinberg, Martin White, Xiaoying Xu, Christophe Yeche, Idit Zehavi, Gong-Bo Zhao

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Abstract

We present a one per cent measurement of the cosmic distance scale from the detections of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the clustering of galaxies from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. Our results come from the Data Release 11 (DR11) sample, containing nearly one million galaxies and covering approximately 8500 square degrees and the redshift range 0.2 < z < 0.7. We also compare these results with those from the publicly released DR9 and DR10 samples. Assuming a concordance Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmological model, the DR11 sample covers a volume of 13 Gpc3 and is the largest region of the Universe ever surveyed at this density. We measure the correlation function and power spectrum, including density-field reconstruction of the BAO feature. The acoustic features are detected at a significance of over 7σ in both the correlation function and power spectrum. Fitting for the position of the acoustic features measures the distance relative to the sound horizon at the drag epoch, rd, which has a value of rd,fid = 149.28 Mpc in our fiducial cosmology. We find DV = (1264 ± 25 Mpc)(rd/rd,fid) at z = 0.32 and DV = (2056 ± 20 Mpc)(rd/rd,fid) at z = 0.57. At 1.0 per cent, this latter measure is the most precise distance constraint ever obtained from a galaxy survey. Separating the clustering along and transverse to the line of sight yields measurements at z = 0.57 of DA = (1421 ± 20 Mpc)(rd/rd,fid) and H = (96.8 ± 3.4 km s−1 Mpc−1)(rd,fid/rd). Our measurements of the distance scale are in good agreement with previous BAO measurements and with the predictions from cosmic microwave background data for a spatially flat CDM model with a cosmological constant.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)24-62
Number of pages39
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume441
Issue number1
Early online date22 Apr 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Jun 2014

Keywords

  • cosmological parameters
  • cosmology: observations
  • dark energy
  • distance scale
  • large-scale structure of Universe
  • RCUK
  • STFC

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