当前测光星系巡天的成团性研究仅聚焦于自关联,忽略了红移 bin 之间的交叉关联。我们评估了在暗能量巡天(DES)及即将开展的鲁宾天文台时空遗产巡天(LSST)的费雪预测中纳入交叉 bin 关联的潜在优势与缺陷。我们的分析考虑了在模型预测中加入红移空间畸变(RSD)和引力透镜放大效应的影响,以及测光红移分布(photo-$z$)中的系统不确定性。仅使用自关联时,物质涨落振幅($σ_8$)与星系偏差参数之间存在简并,而在交叉关联中纳入 RSD 和放大效应有助于打破这一简并——不过其破简并效果弱于与其他观测量联合分析所预期的效果。纳入交叉 bin 关联不会显著提升对 photo-$z$ 系统误差的敏感性,解决了此前的担忧,并且能够自校准 photo-$z$ 系统误差,减小 photo-$z$ nuisance 参数的误差。我们认为在未来的测光星系成团性分析中纳入交叉关联的收益大于风险,但也提醒注意,随着巡天精度和系统误差预算的更真实图景逐步形成,有必要开展细致评估。
英文摘要:
Clustering studies in current photometric galaxy surveys focus solely on auto-correlations, neglecting cross-correlations between redshift bins. We evaluate the potential advantages and drawbacks of incorporating cross-bin correlations in Fisher forecasts for the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the forthcoming Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Our analysis considers the impact of including redshift space distortions (RSD) and magnification in model predictions, as well as systematic uncertainties in photometric redshift distributions (photo-$z$). While auto-correlations alone suffer from a degeneracy between the amplitude of matter fluctuations ($σ_8$) and galaxy bias parameters, accounting for RSD and magnification in cross-correlations helps break this degeneracy - although more weakly than the degeneracy breaking expected from a combined analysis with other observables. Incorporating cross-bin correlations does not significantly increase sensitivity to photo-$z$ systematics, addressing previous concerns, and self-calibrates photo-$z$ systematics, reducing errors on photo-$z$ nuisance parameters. We suggest that the benefits of including cross-correlations in future photometric galaxy clustering analyses outweigh the risks, but caution that careful evaluation is necessary as more realistic pictures of surveys' precision and systematic error budgets develop.
We develop a novel method to explore the galaxy-halo connection using the galaxy imaging surveys by modeling the projected two-point correlation function measured from the galaxies with reasonable photometric redshift measurements. By assuming a Gaussian form of the photometric redshift errors, we are able to simultaneously constrain the halo occupation distribution (HOD) models and the effective photometric redshift uncertainties. Tests with mock galaxy catalogs demonstrate that this method can successfully recover (within $\sim 1σ$) the intrinsic large-scale galaxy bias, as well as the HOD m…
We apply clustering-based redshift inference to all extended sources from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometric catalogue, down to magnitude r = 22. We map the relationships between colours and redshift, without assumption of the sources' spectral energy distributions (SED). We identify and locate star-forming, quiescent galaxies, and AGN, as well as colour changes due to spectral features, such as the 4000 Å break, redshifting through specific filters. Our mapping is globally in good agreement with colour-redshift tracks computed with SED templates, but reveals informative differences, suc…
We present the first measurements of the projected clustering and intrinsic alignments (IA) of galaxies observed by the Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS). With photometry in 40 narrow optical passbands ($450\rm{nm}-850\rm{nm}$), the quality of photometric redshift estimation is $σ_{z} \sim 0.01(1 + z)$ for galaxies in the $19\,\rm{deg}^{2}$ Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) W3 field, allowing us to measure the projected 3D clustering and IA for flux-limited, faint galaxies ($i < 22.5$) out to $z\sim0.8$. To measure two-point statistics, we developed, and te…
In a recent study, we developed a method to model the impact of photometric redshift uncertainty on the two-point correlation function (2PCF). In this method, we can obtain both the intrinsic clustering strength and the photometric redshift errors simultaneously by fitting the projected 2PCF with two integration depths along the line-of-sight. Here we apply this method to the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys Data Release 8 (LS DR8), the largest galaxy sample currently available. We separate galaxies into 20 samples in 8 redshift bins from $z=0.1$ to $z=1.0$, and a few $\rm z$-band absolute magnitud…
Anisotropic redshift distributions in photometric galaxy clustering and their cosmological impact
Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München(慕尼黑大学);Excellence Cluster ORIGINS(ORIGINS卓越集群);Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology(巴塞罗那科技高等物理研究所);ETH Zurich(苏黎世联邦理工学院);Nagoya University(名古屋大学);Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe (KMI)(小林-益川粒子宇宙起源研究所)
Photometric surveys produce large-area maps of the galaxy distribution, but with less accurate redshift information than is obtained from spectroscopic methods. Modern photometric redshift (photo-z) algorithms use galaxy magnitudes, or colors, that are obtained through multi-band imaging to produce a probability density function (PDF) for each galaxy in the map. We used simulated data to study the effect of using different photo-z estimators to assign galaxies to redshift bins in order to compare their effects on angular clustering and galaxy bias measurements. We found that if we use the enti…
The use of photometric redshifts in cosmology is increasing. Often, however these photo-zs are treated like spectroscopic observations, in that the peak of the photometric redshift, rather than the full probability density function (PDF), is used. This overlooks useful information inherent in the full PDF. We introduce a new real-space estimator for one of the most used cosmological statistics, the 2-point correlation function, that weights by the PDF of individual photometric objects in a manner that is optimal when Poisson statistics dominate. As our estimator does not bin based on the PDF p…
We present the clustering analysis of photometric luminous red galaxies (LRGs) at a redshift range of $0.1\leq z \leq 1.05$ using $615,317$ photometric LRGs selected from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program covering $\sim124$ deg$^{2}$. Our sample covers a broad range of stellar masses and photometric redshifts and enables a halo occupation distribution analysis to study the redshift and stellar-mass dependence of dark halo properties of LRGs. We find a tight correlation between the characteristic dark halo mass to host central LRGs, $M_{\min}$, and the number density of LRGs indepe…
We present an improved photometric redshift estimator code, CuBAN$z$, that is publicly available at https://goo.gl/fpk90V}{https://goo.gl/fpk90V. It uses the back propagation neural network along with clustering of the training set, which makes it more efficient than existing neural network codes. In CuBAN$z$, the training set is divided into several self learning clusters with galaxies having similar photometric properties and spectroscopic redshifts within a given span. The clustering algorithm uses the color information (i.e. $u-g$, $g-r$ etc.) rather than the apparent magnitudes at various…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has surveyed 14,555 square degrees of the sky, and delivered over a trillion pixels of imaging data. We present the large-scale clustering of 1.6 million quasars between z = 0.5 and z = 2.5 that have been classified from this imaging, representing the highest density of quasars ever studied for clustering measurements. This data set spans ~11,000 square degrees and probes a volume of 80(Gpc/h)^3. In principle, such a large volume and medium density of tracers should facilitate high-precision cosmological constraints. We measure the angular clustering of photometric…
We present an optimisation method for the assignment of photometric galaxies into a chosen set of redshift bins. This is achieved by combining simulated annealing, an optimisation algorithm inspired by solid-state physics, with an unsupervised machine learning method, a self-organising map (SOM) of the observed colours of galaxies. Starting with a sample of galaxies that is divided into redshift bins based on a photometric redshift point estimate, the simulated annealing algorithm repeatedly reassigns SOM-selected subsamples of galaxies, which are close in colour, to alternative redshift bins.…
We present measurements of the redshift-dependent clustering of a DESI-like luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample selected from the Legacy Survey imaging dataset, and use the halo occupation distribution (HOD) framework to fit the clustering signal. The photometric LRG sample in this study contains 2.7 million objects over the redshift range of $0.4 < z < 0.9$ over 5655 deg$^2$. We have developed new photometric redshift (photo-$z$) estimates using the Legacy Survey DECam and WISE photometry, with $σ_{\mathrm{NMAD}} = 0.02$ precision for LRGs. We compute the projected correlation function using new…
We measure the angular 2-point correlation functions of galaxies in a volume limited, photometrically selected galaxy sample from the fifth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We split the sample both by luminosity and galaxy type and use a halo-model analysis to find halo-occupation distributions that can simultaneously model the clustering of all, early-, and late-type galaxies in a given sample. Our results for the full galaxy sample are generally consistent with previous results using the SDSS spectroscopic sample, taking the differences between the median redshifts of the photom…
We measure the color and stellar mass dependence of clustering in spectroscopic galaxies at $0.6 < z < 0.65$ using data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey component of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We greatly increase the statistical precision of our clustering measurements by using the cross-correlation of 66,657 spectroscopic galaxies to a sample of 6.6 million fainter photometric galaxies. The clustering amplitude $w(R)$ is measured as the ratio of the mean excess number of photometric galaxies found within a specified radius annulus around a spectroscopic galaxy to that from …
We present the clustering properties of low-$z$ $(z\leq1.4)$ galaxies selected by the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program Wide layer over $145$ deg$^{2}$. The wide-field and multi-wavelength observation yields $5,064,770$ galaxies at $0.3\leq z\leq1.4$ with photometric redshifts and physical properties. This enables the accurate measurement of angular correlation functions and subsequent halo occupation distribution (HOD) analysis allows the connection between baryonic properties and dark halo properties. The fraction of less-massive satellite galaxies at $z\lesssim1$ is found to be alm…
We present a new technique to estimate the level of contamination between photometric redshift bins. If the true angular cross-correlation between redshift bins can be safely assumed to be zero, any measured cross-correlation is a result of contamination between the bins. We present the theory for an arbitrary number of redshift bins, and discuss in detail the case of two and three bins which can be easily solved analytically. We use mock catalogues constructed from the Millennium Simulation to test the method, showing that artificial contamination can be successfully recovered with our method…
In the upcoming era of high-precision galaxy surveys, it becomes necessary to understand the impact of redshift uncertainties on cosmological observables. In this paper we explore the effect of sub-percent photometric redshift errors (photo-$z$ errors) on galaxy clustering and baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO). Using analytic expressions and results from $1\,000$ $N$-body simulations, we show how photo-$z$ errors modify the amplitude of moments of the 2D power spectrum, their variances, the amplitude of BAO, and the cosmological information in them. We find that: a) photo-$z$ errors suppres…
We investigate the evolution of the galaxy two point correlation function (CF) over a wide redshift range, 0.2 < z < 3. For the first time the systematic analysis covers the redshifts above 1 - 1.5. The catalogue of ~250000 galaxies with i+ < 25 and known photometric redshifts in the Subaru Deep field is used. The galaxies are divided into three luminosity classes and several distance/redshift bins. First, the 2D CF is determined for each luminosity class and distance bin. Calculations are based on the quantitative differences between the surface distributions of galaxy pairs with comparable a…
We investigate the expected cosmological constraints from a combination of weak lensing and large-scale galaxy clustering using realistic redshift distributions. Introducing a systematic bias in the weak lensing redshift distributions (of 0.05 in redshift) produces a $>2σ$ bias in the recovered matter power spectrum amplitude and dark energy equation of state, for preliminary Stage III surveys. We demonstrate that these cosmological errors can be largely removed by marginalising over unknown biases in the assumed weak lensing redshift distributions, if we assume high quality redshift informati…
We study the dependence of quasar clustering on quasar luminosity and black hole mass by measuring the angular overdensity of photometrically selected galaxies imaged by WISE about z $\sim$ 0.8 quasars from SDSS. By measuring the quasar-galaxy cross-correlation function and using photometrically selected galaxies, we achieve a higher density of tracer objects and a more sensitive detection of clustering than measurements of the quasar autocorrelation function. We test models of quasar formation and evolution by measuring the luminosity dependence of clustering amplitude. We find a significant …
China Space Station Telescope (CSST) is a forthcoming powerful Stage IV space-based optical survey equipment. It is expected to explore a number of important cosmological problems in extremely high precision. In this work, we focus on investigating the constraints on neutrino mass and other cosmological parameters under the model of cold dark matter with a constant equation of state of dark energy ($w$CDM), using the mock data from the CSST photometric galaxy clustering and cosmic shear surveys (i.e. 3$\times$2pt). The systematics from galaxy bias, photometric redshift uncertainties, intrinsic…
We present The-wiZZ, an open source and user-friendly software for estimating the redshift distributions of photometric galaxies with unknown redshifts by spatially cross-correlating them against a reference sample with known redshifts. The main benefit of The-wiZZ is in separating the angular pair finding and correlation estimation from the computation of the output clustering redshifts allowing anyone to create a clustering redshift for their sample without the intervention of an "expert". It allows the end user of a given survey to select any sub-sample of photometric galaxies with unknown …
We observe a large excess of power in the statistical clustering of Luminous Red Galaxies in the photometric SDSS galaxy sample called MegaZ DR7. This is seen over the lowest multipoles in the angular power spectra C_{\ell} in four equally spaced redshift bins between 0.45 < z < 0.65. However, it is most prominent in the highest redshift band at ~ 4 sigma and it emerges at an effective scale k ~ 0.01 h Mpc^{-1}. Given that MegaZ DR7 is the largest cosmic volume galaxy survey to date (3.3 (Gpc h^{-1})^3) this implies an anomaly on the largest physical scales probed by galaxies. Alternatively, t…
When analyzing galaxy clustering in multi-band imaging surveys, there is a trade-off between selecting the largest galaxy samples (to minimize the shot noise) and selecting samples with the best photometric redshift (photo-z) precision, which generally include only a small subset of galaxies. In this paper, we systematically explore this trade-off. Our analysis is targeted towards the third year data of the Dark Energy Survey (DES), but our methods hold generally for other data sets. Using a simple Gaussian model for the redshift uncertainties, we carry out a Fisher matrix forecast for cosmolo…
We investigate the use of simple colour cuts applied to the SDSS optical imaging to perform photometric selections of emission line galaxies out to z<1. From colour-cuts using the SDSS g, r and i bands, we obtain mean photometric redshifts of z=0.32+-0.08, z=0.44+-0.12 and z=0.65+-0.21. We further calibrate our high redshift selection using spectroscopic observations with the AAOmega spectrograph on the 4m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT), observing ~50-200 galaxy candidates in 4 separate fields. With just 1-hour of integration time and with seeing of ~1.6", we successfully determined redshift…
The possibility of measuring redshift space (RSD) distortions using photometric data have been recently highlighted. This effect complements and significantly alters the detectability of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in photometric surveys. In this paper we present measurements of the angular correlation function of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) in the photometric catalog of the final data release (DR7) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II (SDSS). The sample compromise ~ 1.5 x 10^6 LRGs distributed in 0.45 < z < 0.65, with a characteristic photometric error of ~ 0.05. Our measured correlatio…
We present a data-driven method to infer the redshift distribution of an arbitrary dataset based on spatial cross-correlation with a reference population and we apply it to various datasets across the electromagnetic spectrum to show its potential and limitations. Our approach advocates the use of clustering measurements on all available scales, in contrast to previous works focusing only on linear scales. We also show how its accuracy can be enhanced by optimally sampling a dataset within its photometric space rather than applying the estimator globally. We show that the ultimate goal of this…
We measure the two-point angular correlation function of a sample of 4,289,223 galaxies with r < 19.4 mag from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey as a function of photometric redshift, absolute magnitude and colour down to M_r - 5log h = -14 mag. Photometric redshifts are estimated from ugriz model magnitudes and two Petrosian radii using the artificial neural network package ANNz, taking advantage of the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) spectroscopic sample as our training set. The photometric redshifts are then used to determine absolute magnitudes and colours. For all our samples, we estimate the …
A photometric redshift sample of Luminous Red Galaxies (hereafter LRGs) obtained from The DECam Legacy Survey (DECaLS) is analysed to probe cosmic distances by exploiting the wedge approach of the two-point correlation function. Although the cosmological information is highly contaminated by the uncertainties existing in the photometric redshifts from the galaxy map, an angular diameter distance can be probed at the perpendicular configuration in which the measured correlation function is minimally contaminated. An ensemble of wedged correlation functions selected up to a given threshold based…
In this work, we present results for the photometric and clustering properties of galaxies that arise in a LambdaCDM hydrodynamical simulation of the local universe. The present-day distribution of matter was constructed to match the observed large scale pattern of the IRAS 1.2-Jy galaxy survey. Our simulation follows the formation and evolution of galaxies in a cosmological sphere with a volume of ~130^3 (Mpc/h)^3 including supernova feedback, galactic winds, photoheating due to an uniform meta-galactic background and chemical enrichment of the gas and stellar populations. However, we do not …
We develop a new method which measures the projected density distribution w_p(r_p)n of photometric galaxies surrounding a set of spectroscopically-identified galaxies, and simultaneously the projected correlation function w_p(r_p) between the two populations. In this method we are able to divide the photometric galaxies into subsamples in luminosity intervals when redshift information is unavailable, enabling us to measure w_p(r_p)n and w_p(r_p) as a function of not only the luminosity of the spectroscopic galaxy, but also that of the photometric galaxy. Extensive tests show that our method ca…
We study the clustering of galaxies detected at $i<22.5$ in the Science Verification observations of the Dark Energy Survey (DES). Two-point correlation functions are measured using $2.3\times 10^6$ galaxies over a contiguous 116 deg$^2$ region in five bins of photometric redshift width $Δz = 0.2$ in the range $0.2 < z < 1.2.$ The impact of photometric redshift errors are assessed by comparing results using a template-based photo-$z$ algorithm (BPZ) to a machine-learning algorithm (TPZ). A companion paper (Leistedt et al 2015) presents maps of several observational variables (e.g. seeing, sky …
We measure the evolution of galaxy clustering out to a redshift of z~1.5 using data from two MUSYC fields, the Extended Hubble Deep Field South (EHDF-S) and the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDF-S). We use photometric redshift information to calculate the projected-angular correlation function, omega(sigma), from which we infer the projected correlation function Xi(sigma). We demonstrate that this technique delivers accurate measurements of clustering even when large redshift measurement errors affect the data. To this aim we use two mock MUSYC fields extracted from a LambdaCDM simulatio…
Weak lensing (WL) clustering is studied using 2D (angular) coordinates, while redshift space distortions (RSD) and baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) use 3D coordinates, which requires a model dependent conversion of angles and redshifts into comoving distances. This is the first paper of a series, which explore modelling multi-tracer galaxy clustering (of WL, BAO and RSD), using only angular (2D) cross-correlations in thin redshift bins. This involves evaluating many thousands cross-correlations, each a multidimensional integral, which is computationally demanding. We present a new algorithm …
We study the importance of gravitational lensing in the modelling of the number counts of galaxies. We confirm previous results for photometric surveys, showing that lensing cannot be neglected in a survey like LSST since it would infer a significant shift of cosmological parameters. For a spectroscopic survey like SKA2, we find that neglecting lensing in the monopole, quadrupole and hexadecapole of the correlation function also induces an important shift of parameters. For $Λ$CDM parameters, the shift is moderate, of the order of 0.6$σ$ or less. However, for a model-independent analysis, that…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) surveyed 14,555 square degrees, and delivered over a trillion pixels of imaging data. We present a study of galaxy clustering using 900,000 luminous galaxies with photometric redshifts, spanning between $z=0.45$ and $z=0.65$, constructed from the SDSS using methods described in Ross et al. (2011). This data-set spans 11,000 square degrees and probes a volume of $3h^{-3} \rm{Gpc}^3$, making it the largest volume ever used for galaxy clustering measurements. We present a novel treatment of the observational systematics and its applications to the clustering si…
Precision cosmology requires accurate galaxy redshifts, but next generation optical surveys will observe unprecedented numbers of resolved galaxies, placing strain on the amount of spectroscopic follow-up required. We show how useful information can be gained on the redshift distributions of optical galaxy samples from spatial cross-correlations with intensity maps of unresolved HI (21cm) spectral line emission. We construct a redshift distribution estimator, which we test using simulations. We utilise the S3-SAX catalogue which includes HI emission information for each galaxy, which we use to…
We investigate the importance of lensing magnification for estimates of galaxy clustering and its cross-correlation with shear for the photometric sample of Euclid. Using updated specifications, we study the impact of lensing magnification on the constraints and the shift in the estimation of the best fitting cosmological parameters that we expect if this effect is neglected. We follow the prescriptions of the official Euclid Fisher matrix forecast for the photometric galaxy clustering analysis and the combination of photometric clustering and cosmic shear. The slope of the luminosity function…
We present a method of calibrating the properties of photometric redshift bins as part of a larger Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis for the inference of cosmological parameters. The redshift bins are characterised by their mean and variance, which are varied as free parameters and marginalised over when obtaining the cosmological parameters. We demonstrate that the likelihood function for cross-correlations in an angular power spectrum framework tightly constrains the properties of bins such that they may be well determined, reducing their influence on cosmological parameters and avoid…
We measure the angular auto-correlation functions (w) of SDSS galaxies selected to have photometric redshifts 0.1 < z < 0.4 and absolute r-band magnitudes Mr < -21.2. We split these galaxies into five overlapping redshift shells of width 0.1 and measure w in each subsample in order to investigate the evolution of SDSS galaxies. We find that the bias increases substantially with redshift - much more so than one would expect for a passively evolving sample. We use halo-model analysis to determine the best-fit halo-occupation-distribution (HOD) for each subsample, and the best-fit models allow us…
We study the impact of neglecting lensing magnification in galaxy clustering analyses for future galaxy surveys, considering the LambdaCDM model and two extensions: massive neutrinos and modifications of General Relativity. Our study focuses on the biases on the constraints and on the estimation of the cosmological parameters. We perform a comprehensive investigation of these two effects for the upcoming photometric and spectroscopic galaxy surveys Euclid and SKA for different redshift binning configurations. We also provide a fitting formula for the magnification bias of SKA. Our results show…
We measure the large-scale clustering of MgII λλ2796,2803 absorbers with respect to a population of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) at z \sim 0.5. From the cross-correlation measurements between MgII absorbers and LRGs, we calculate the mean bias of the dark matter halos in which the absorbers reside. We investigate systematic uncertainties in the clustering measurements due to the sample selection of LRGs and due to uncertainties in photometric redshifts. First, we compare the cross-correlation amplitudes determined using a it flux-limited LRG sample and a volume-limited one. The comparison show…
I present an estimator for the angular cross-correlation of two tracers of the cosmological large-scale structure that utilizes redshift information to isolate separate physical contributions. The estimator is derived by solving the Limber equation for a re-weighting of the foreground tracer that nulls either clustering or lensing contributions to the cross-correlation function. Applied to future photometric surveys, the estimator can enhance the measurement of gravitational lensing magnification effects to provide a competitive independent constraint on the dark energy equation of state.
In this paper, we motivate the use of galaxy clustering measurements using photometric redshift information, including a contribution from flux magnification, as a probe of cosmology. We present cosmological forecasts when clustering data alone is used, and when clustering is combined with a cosmic shear analysis. We consider two types of clustering analysis: firstly, clustering with only redshift auto-correlations in tomographic redshift bins; secondly, using all available redshift bin correlations. Finally, we consider how inferred cosmological parameters may be biased using each analysis wh…
Galaxy filaments are the dominant feature in the overall structure of the cosmic web. The study of the filamentary web is an important aspect in understanding galaxy evolution and the evolution of matter in the Universe. A map of the filamentary structure is an adequate probe of the web. We propose that photometric redshift galaxies are significantly positively associated with the filamentary structure detected from the spatial distribution of spectroscopic redshift galaxies. The catalogues of spectroscopic and photometric galaxies are seen as point-process realisations in a sphere, and the ca…
A new determination of the sound horizon scale in angular coordinates is presented. It makes use of ~ 0.6 x 10^6 Luminous Red Galaxies, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging data, with photometric redshifts. The analysis covers a redshift interval that goes from z=0.5 to z=0.6. We find evidence of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) signal at the ~ 2.3 sigma confidence level, with a value of theta_{BAO} (z=0.55) = (3.90 \pm 0.38) degrees, including systematic errors. To our understanding, this is the first direct measurement of the angular BAO scale in the galaxy distribution, …
We present a Fisher matrix forecast for the sensitivity on the mass of a thermal warm dark matter (WDM) particle from current (DES-like) and future (LSST-like) photometric galaxy surveys using the galaxy angular power spectrum. We model the nonlinear clustering using a modified Halo Model proposed to account for WDM effects. We estimate that from this observable alone a lower bound of $m_{\text{wdm}}>647$\,eV ($m_{\text{wdm}}>126$\,eV) for the LSST (DES) case could be obtained.
We present the distance measurement to z = 0.32 using the 11th data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Survey (BOSS). We use 313,780 galaxies of the low-redshift (LOWZ) sample over 7,341 square-degrees to compute $D_V = (1264 \pm 25)(r_d/r_{d,fid})$ - a sub 2% measurement - using the baryon acoustic feature measured in the galaxy two-point correlation function and power-spectrum. We compare our results to those obtained in DR10. We study observational systematics in the LOWZ sample and quantify potential effects due to photometric offsets between the northe…
We determine the accuracy of galaxy redshift distributions as estimated from photometric redshift probability distributions $p(z)$. Our method utilises measurements of the angular cross-correlation between photometric galaxies and an overlapping sample of galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts. We describe the redshift leakage from a galaxy photometric redshift bin $j$ into a spectroscopic redshift bin $i$ using the sum of the $p(z)$ for the galaxies residing in bin $j$. We can then predict the angular cross-correlation between photometric and spectroscopic galaxies due to intrinsic galaxy clus…