1. THE BOSS Lyα FOREST SAMPLE FROM SDSS DATA RELEASE 9
- Author
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Nao Suzuki, Nicholas P. Ross, Stephen Bailey, David N. Spergel, Elena Malanushenko, Nicolás G. Busca, Rupert A. C. Croft, Éric Aubourg, Matteo Viel, Pasquier Noterdaeme, Garrett Ebelke, Britt Lundgren, Jian Ge, Khee-Gan Lee, Adam D. Myers, Jean-Marc Le Goff, Stephanie A. Snedden, Timothée Delubac, William Carithers, Daniel Margala, David J. Schlegel, Kyle S. Dawson, James Rich, Dmitry Bizyaev, Jean-Christophe Hamilton, Christophe Yèche, Patrick Petitjean, Daniel Oravetz, Joseph F. Hennawi, Benjamin A. Weaver, Julian E. Bautista, Viktor Malanushenko, Michael Blomqvist, Donald P. Schneider, Graziano Rossi, David H. Weinberg, Daniel J. Eisenstein, Matthew M. Pieri, Kaike Pan, Jordi Miralda-Escudé, Audrey Simmons, Anze Slosar, Arnaud Borde, D. Kirkby, Howard Brewington, Adam S. Bolton, Emmanuel Rollinde, Shirley Ho, Leslie E. Bartsch, Isabelle Paris, Andreu Font-Ribera, Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille, K. Honscheid, APC - Cosmologie, AstroParticule et Cosmologie (APC (UMR_7164)), Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3), SDSS-III, Physique Corpusculaire et Cosmologie - Collège de France (PCC), Collège de France (CdF)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Collège de France (CdF)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-AstroParticule et Cosmologie (APC (UMR_7164)), Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Observatoire de Paris, and Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
Cosmology and Gravitation ,[SDU.ASTR.CO]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO] ,Continuum (design consultancy) ,Flux ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,01 natural sciences ,[PHYS.ASTR.CO]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO] ,Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica ,0103 physical sciences ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Physics ,010308 nuclear & particles physics ,Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Quasar ,Lyman-alpha forest ,methods: data analysis ,Redshift ,quasars: absorption lines ,quasars: emission lines ,Data set ,Boss ,Space and Planetary Science ,intergalactic medium ,Baryon acoustic oscillations - Abstract
We present the BOSS Lyman-α (Lyα) Forest Sample from SDSS Data Release 9, comprising 54,468 quasar spectra with z qso > 2.15 suitable for Lyα forest analysis. This data set probes the intergalactic medium with absorption redshifts 2.0 < z α < 5.7 over an area of 3275 deg2, and encompasses an approximate comoving volume of 20 h –3 Gpc3. With each spectrum, we have included several products designed to aid in Lyα forest analysis: improved sky masks that flag pixels where data may be unreliable, corrections for known biases in the pipeline estimated noise, masks for the cores of damped Lyα systems and corrections for their wings, and estimates of the unabsorbed continua so that the observed flux can be converted to a fractional transmission. The continua are derived using a principal component fit to the quasar spectrum redward of rest-frame Lyα (λ > 1216 Å), extrapolated into the forest region and normalized by a linear function to fit the expected evolution of the Lyα forest mean flux. The estimated continuum errors are 5% rms. We also discuss possible systematics arising from uncertain spectrophotometry and artifacts in the flux calibration; global corrections for the latter are provided. Our sample provides a convenient starting point for users to analyze clustering in BOSS Lyα forest data, and it provides a fiducial data set that can be used to compare results from different analyses of baryon acoustic oscillations in the Lyα forest. The full data set is available from the SDSS-III DR9 Web site.
- Published
- 2013
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