Simulations of BAO reconstruction with a quasar Ly-a survey


Por: Le Goff J.M., Magneville C., Rollinde E., Peirani S., Petitjean P., Pichon C., Rich J., Yeche C., Aubourg E., Busca N., Charlassier R., Delubac T., Hamilton J.C., Palanque Delabrouille N., Pgris I., Vargas Magaña M.

Publicada: 1 ene 2011
Resumen:
Context. The imprint of baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) on the matter power spectrum can be constrained using the neutral hydrogen density in the intergalactic medium (IGM) as a tracer of the matter density. One of the goals of the baryon oscillation spectroscopic survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) is to derive the Hubble expansion rate and the angular scale from the BAO signal in the IGM. To this aim, the Lyman-? forest about 150 000 quasars will be observed in the redshift range 2.2 < z < 3.5 and over sim;10 000 deg2. Aims. We simulated the BOSS QSO survey to estimate the statistical accuracy on the BAO scale determination provided by such a large-scale survey. In particular, we discuss the effect of the poorly constrained estimate of the quasar's unabsorbed intrinsic spectrum. Methods. The volume of current N-body simulations being too small for such studies, we resorted to Gaussian random field (GRF) simulations. We validated the use of GRFs by comparing the output of GRF simulations with that of the Horizon-4? N-body dark-matter-only simulation with the same initial conditions. Realistic mock samples of QSO Lyman-? forest were generated and their power spectrum computed and fitted to obtain the BAO scale. The rms of the results for 100 different simulations provides an estimate of the statistical error expected from the BOSS survey. Results. We confirm the results from the Fisher matrix estimate. In the absence of error on the quasar's unabsorbed spectrum, our simulations give an expected uncertainty of 2.3% for the BOSS quasar survey measurement of the BAO scale. The expected uncertainties for the transverse and radial BAO scales are 6.8% and 3.9%, respectively. The significance of the BAO detection is assessed by an average ??2 = 17 but ??2 ranges from 2 to 35 for individual realizations. The error on the quasar's unabsorbed spectrum increases the error on the BAO scale by 10 to 20% and results in a subpercent bias. © 2011 ESO.

Filiaciones:
Le Goff J.M.:
 CEA Centre de Saclay, Irfu, SPP, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Magneville C.:
 CEA Centre de Saclay, Irfu, SPP, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Rollinde E.:
 Institut DáAstrophysique de Paris, UMR7095 CNRS, Universitá Pierre et Marie Curie, 98 bis bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France

Peirani S.:
 Institut DáAstrophysique de Paris, UMR7095 CNRS, Universitá Pierre et Marie Curie, 98 bis bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France

Petitjean P.:
 Institut DáAstrophysique de Paris, UMR7095 CNRS, Universitá Pierre et Marie Curie, 98 bis bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France

Pichon C.:
 Institut DáAstrophysique de Paris, UMR7095 CNRS, Universitá Pierre et Marie Curie, 98 bis bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France

Rich J.:
 CEA Centre de Saclay, Irfu, SPP, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Yeche C.:
 CEA Centre de Saclay, Irfu, SPP, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Aubourg E.:
 CEA Centre de Saclay, Irfu, SPP, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

 APC, 10 rue Alice Domon et Láonie Duquet, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France

Busca N.:
 APC, 10 rue Alice Domon et Láonie Duquet, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France

Charlassier R.:
 CEA Centre de Saclay, Irfu, SPP, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Delubac T.:
 CEA Centre de Saclay, Irfu, SPP, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Hamilton J.C.:
 APC, 10 rue Alice Domon et Láonie Duquet, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France

Palanque Delabrouille N.:
 CEA Centre de Saclay, Irfu, SPP, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Vargas Magaña M.:
 APC, 10 rue Alice Domon et Láonie Duquet, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France
ISSN: 00046361
Editorial
EDP SCIENCES S A, 17, AVE DU HOGGAR, PA COURTABOEUF, BP 112, F-91944 LES ULIS CEDEX A, FRANCE, Francia
Tipo de documento: Article
Volumen: 534 Número:
Páginas:
WOS Id: 000296554800140
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