The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: anisotropic clustering analysis in configuration space

We explore the cosmological implications of anisotropic clustering measurements of the quasar sample from Data Release 14 (DR14) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) in configuration space. The ~147 000 quasar sample observed by eBOSS offers a direct tracer of the density field and bridges the gap of previous baryon acoustic oscillation measurements between redshift 0.8 < z < 2.2. By analysing the two-point correlation function characterized by clustering wedges ξ_wi (s) and multipoles ξℓ(s), we measure the angular diameter distance, Hubble parameter, and cosmic structure growth rate. We define a systematic error budget for our measurements based on the analysis of N-body simulations and mock catalogues. Based on the DR14 large-scale structure quasar sample at the effective redshift z_eff = 1.52, we find the growth rate of cosmic structure fσ₈(z_eff) = 0.396 ± 0.079, and the geometric parameters D_V(z)/r_d = 26.47 ± 1.23, and FAP(z) = 2.53 ± 0.22, where the uncertainties include both statistical and systematic errors. These values are in excellent agreement with the best-fitting standard Λ cold dark matter model to the latest cosmic microwave background data from Planck.