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In the early Universe, neutrinos decouple quickly from the primordial plasma and propagate without further interactions. The impact of free-streaming neutrinos is to create a temporal shift in the gravitational potential that impacts the acoustic waves known as baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs), resulting in a non-linear spatial shift in the Fourier-space BAO signal. In this work, we make use of and extend upon an existing methodology to measure the phase shift amplitude $\beta_{\phi}$ and apply it to the DESI Data Release 1 (DR1) BAOs with an anisotropic BAO fitting pipeline. We validate the fitting methodology by testing the pipeline with two publicly available fitting codes applied to highly precise cubic box simulations and realistic simulations representative of the DESI DR1 data. We find further study towards the methods used in fitting the BAO signal will be necessary to ensure accurate constraints on $\beta_{\phi}$ in future DESI data releases. Using DESI DR1, we present individual measurements of the anisotropic BAO distortion parameters and the $\beta_{\phi}$ for the different tracers, and additionally a combined fit to $\beta_{\phi}$ resulting in $\beta_{\phi} = 2.7 \pm 1.7$. After including a prior on the distortion parameters from constraints using \textit{Planck} we find $\beta_{\phi} = 2.7^{+0.60}_{-0.67} $ suggesting $\beta_{\phi} > 0$ at 4.3$\sigma$ significance. This result may hint at a phase shift that is not purely sourced from the standard model expectation for $N_{\rm{eff}}$ or could be a upwards statistical fluctuation in the measured $\beta_{\phi}$; this result relaxes in models with additional freedom beyond $\Lambda$CDM.

Reconstruction of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) signal has been a standard procedure in BAO analyses over the past decade and has helped to improve the BAO parameter precision by a factor of ~2 on average. The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) BAO analysis for the first year (DR1) data uses the ``standard'' reconstruction framework, in which the displacement field is estimated from the observed density field by solving the linearized continuity equation in redshift space, and galaxy and random positions are shifted in order to partially remove nonlinearities. There are several approaches to solving for the displacement field in real survey data, including the multigrid (MG), iterative Fast Fourier Transform (iFFT), and iterative Fast Fourier Transform particle (iFFTP) algorithms. In this work, we analyze these algorithms and compare them with various metrics including two-point statistics and the displacement itself using realistic DESI mocks. We focus on three representative DESI samples, the emission line galaxies (ELG), quasars (QSO), and the bright galaxy sample (BGS), which cover the extreme redshifts and number densities, and potential wide-angle effects. We conclude that the MG and iFFT algorithms agree within 0.4% in post-reconstruction power spectrum on BAO scales with the RecSym convention, which does not remove large-scale redshift space distortions (RSDs), in all three tracers. The RecSym convention appears to be less sensitive to displacement errors than the RecIso convention, which attempts to remove large-scale RSDs. However, iFFTP deviates from the first two; thus, we recommend against using iFFTP without further development. In addition, we provide the optimal settings for reconstruction for five years of DESI observation. The analyses presented in this work pave the way for DESI DR1 analysis as well as future BAO analyses., Comment: 51 pages, 28 figures. Supporting publication of DESI 2024 III: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Galaxies and Quasars

The physical size of the sound horizon at recombination is a powerful source of information for early-time measurements of the Hubble constant $H_0$, and many proposed solutions to the Hubble tension therefore involve modifications to this scale. In light of this, there has been growing interest in measuring $H_0$ independently of the sound horizon. We present the first such measurement to use data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), jointly analyzing the full-shape galaxy power spectra of DESI luminous red galaxies, emission line galaxies, quasars, and the bright galaxy sample, in a total of six redshift bins. Information from the sound horizon scale is removed from our constraints via a rescaling procedure at the power spectrum level, with our sound horizon-marginalized measurement being driven instead primarily by the matter-radiation equality scale. This measurement is then combined with additional sound horizon-free information from Planck+ACT CMB lensing, uncalibrated type Ia supernovae, and the DESI Lyman-$\alpha$ forest. We agnostically combine with the DESY5, Pantheon+, and Union3 supernova datasets, with our tightest respective constraints being $H_0=66.7^{+1.7}_{-1.9},~67.9^{+1.9}_{-2.1},$ and $67.8^{+2.0}_{-2.2}$ km s-1 Mpc-1. This corresponds to a sub-3% sound horizon-free constraint of the Hubble constant, and is the most precise measurement of its kind to date. Even without including information from the sound horizon, our measurement is still in 2.2-3.0$\sigma$ tension with SH0ES. Additionally, the consistency between our result and other measurements that do rely on the sound horizon scale provides no evidence for new early-Universe physics (e.g. early dark energy). Future DESI data releases will allow unprecedented measurements of $H_0$ and place strong constraints on models that use beyond-$\Lambda$CDM physics to ameliorate the Hubble tension., Comment: 17+7 pages; 5 figures. Submitted to JCAP

The mean free path of ionizing photons for neutral hydrogen ($\lambda_\mathrm{mfp}^{912}$) is a crucial quantity in modelling the ionization state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) and the extragalactic ultraviolet background (EUVB), and is widely used in hydrodynamical simulations of galaxies and reionization. We construct the largest quasar spectrum dataset to date -- 12,595 $\mathrm{S/N}>3$ spectra -- using the Y1 observation of Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) to make the most precise model-independent measurement of the mean free path at $3.2\leq z\leq 4.6$. By stacking the spectra in 17 redshift bins and modelling the Lyman continuum profile, we get a redshift evolution $\lambda_\mathrm{mfp}^{912}\propto(1+z)^{-4.27}$ at $2\leq z\leq 5$, which is much shallower than previous estimates. We then explore the sources of systematic bias, including the choice of intrinsic quasar continuum, the consideration of Lyman series opacity and Lyman limit opacity evolution and the definition of $\lambda_\mathrm{mfp}^{912}$. Combining our results with estimates of $\lambda_\mathrm{mfp}^{912}$ at higher redshifts, we conclude at high confidence that the evolution in $\lambda_\mathrm{mfp}^{912}$ steepens at $z \approx 5$. We interpret this inflection as the transition from the end of HI reionization to a fully ionized plasma which characterizes the intergalactic medium of the past $\sim10$ billion years., Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, submitted to ApJL. Comments are welcome!

We present cosmological constraints on deviations from general relativity (GR) from the first-year of clustering observations from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) in combination with other datasets. We first consider the $\mu(a,k)$-$\Sigma(a,k)$ modified gravity (MG) parametrization (as well as $\eta(a,k)$) in flat $\Lambda$CDM and $w_0 w_a$CDM backgrounds. Using a functional form for time-only evolution gives $\mu_0= 0.11^{+0.44}_{-0.54}$ from DESI(FS+BAO)+BBN and a wide prior on $n_{s}$. Using DESI(FS+BAO)+CMB+DESY3+DESY5-SN, we obtain $\mu_0 = 0.05\pm 0.22$ and $\Sigma_0 = 0.009\pm 0.045$ in the $\Lambda$CDM background. In $w_0 w_a$CDM, we obtain $\mu_0 =-0.24^{+0.32}_{-0.28}$ and $\Sigma_0 = 0.006\pm 0.043$, consistent with GR, and we still find a preference of the data for dynamical dark energy with $w_0>-1$ and $w_a<0$. We then use binned forms in the two backgrounds starting with two bins in redshift and then combining them with two bins in scale for a total of 4 and 8 MG parameters, respectively. All MG parameters are found consistent with GR. We also find that the tension reported for $\Sigma_0$ with GR when using Planck PR3 goes away when we use the recent LoLLiPoP+HiLLiPoP likelihoods. As noted previously, this seems to indicate that the tension is related to the CMB lensing anomaly in PR3 which is also alleviated when using these likelihoods. We then constrain the class of Horndeski theory in the effective field theory of dark energy. We consider both EFT-basis and $\alpha$-basis. Assuming a power law parametrization for the function $\Omega$, which controls non-minimal coupling, we obtain $\Omega_0 = 0.0120^{+0.0021}_{-0.013}$ and $s_0 = 0.99^{+0.54}_{-0.20}$ from DESI(FS+BAO)+DESY5SN+CMB in a $\Lambda$CDM background. Similar results are obtained when using the $\alpha$-basis, where we constrain $c_M<1.24$, and are all consistent with GR. [Abridged.], Comment: 52 pages, 10 figures. This DESI Collaboration Publication is part of the 2024 publication series using the first year of observations (see https://data.desi.lbl.gov/doc/papers/)

We present an in-depth analysis of the fiber assignment incompleteness in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Data Release 1 (DR1). This incompleteness is caused by the restricted mobility of the robotic fiber positioner in the DESI focal plane, which limits the number of galaxies that can be observed at the same time, especially at small angular separations. As a result, the observed clustering amplitude is suppressed in a scale-dependent manner, which, if not addressed, can severely impact the inference of cosmological parameters. We discuss the methods adopted for simulating fiber assignment on mocks and data. In particular, we introduce the fast fiber assignment (FFA) emulator, which was employed to obtain the power spectrum covariance adopted for the DR1 full-shape analysis. We present the mitigation techniques, organised in two classes: measurement stage and model stage. We then use high fidelity mocks as a reference to quantify both the accuracy of the FFA emulator and the effectiveness of the different measurement-stage mitigation techniques. This complements the studies conducted in a parallel paper for the model-stage techniques, namely the $\theta$-cut approach. We find that pairwise inverse probability (PIP) weights with angular upweighting recover the "true" clustering in all the cases considered, in both Fourier and configuration space. Notably, we present the first ever power spectrum measurement with PIP weights from real data., Comment: 42 pages, 19 figures

Emission Line Galaxies (ELGs) are one of the main tracers that the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) uses to probe the universe. However, they are afflicted by strong spurious correlations between target density and observing conditions known as imaging systematics. We present the imaging systematics mitigation applied to the DESI Data Release 1 (DR1) large-scale structure catalogs used in the DESI 2024 cosmological analyses. We also explore extensions of the fiducial treatment. This includes a combined approach, through forward image simulations in conjunction with neural network-based regression, to obtain an angular selection function that mitigates the imaging systematics observed in the DESI DR1 ELGs target density. We further derive a line-of-sight selection function from the forward model that removes the strong redshift dependence between imaging systematics and low redshift ELGs. Combining both angular and redshift-dependent systematics, we construct a 3D selection function and assess the impact of all selection functions on clustering statistics. We quantify differences between these extended treatments and the fiducial treatment in terms of the measured 2-point statistics. We find that the results are generally consistent with the fiducial treatment and conclude that the differences are far less than the imaging systematics uncertainty included in DESI 2024 full-shape measurements. We extend our investigation to the ELGs at $0.6

We present cosmological results from the measurement of clustering of galaxy, quasar and Lyman-$\alpha$ forest tracers from the first year of observations with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI Data Release 1). We adopt the full-shape (FS) modeling of the power spectrum, including the effects of redshift-space distortions, in an analysis which has been validated in a series of supporting papers. In the flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model, DESI (FS+BAO), combined with a baryon density prior from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and a weak prior on the scalar spectral index, determines matter density to $\Omega_\mathrm{m}=0.2962\pm 0.0095$, and the amplitude of mass fluctuations to $\sigma_8=0.842\pm 0.034$. The addition of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data tightens these constraints to $\Omega_\mathrm{m}=0.3056\pm 0.0049$ and $\sigma_8=0.8121\pm 0.0053$, while further addition of the the joint clustering and lensing analysis from the Dark Energy Survey Year-3 (DESY3) data leads to a 0.4% determination of the Hubble constant, $H_0 = (68.40\pm 0.27)\,{\rm km\,s^{-1}\,Mpc^{-1}}$. In models with a time-varying dark energy equation of state, combinations of DESI (FS+BAO) with CMB and type Ia supernovae continue to show the preference, previously found in the DESI DR1 BAO analysis, for $w_0>-1$ and $w_a<0$ with similar levels of significance. DESI data, in combination with the CMB, impose the upper limits on the sum of the neutrino masses of $\sum m_\nu < 0.071\,{\rm eV}$ at 95% confidence. DESI data alone measure the modified-gravity parameter that controls the clustering of massive particles, $\mu_0=0.11^{+0.45}_{-0.54}$, while the combination of DESI with the CMB and the clustering and lensing analysis from DESY3 constrains both modified-gravity parameters, giving $\mu_0 = 0.04\pm 0.22$ and $\Sigma_0 = 0.044\pm 0.047$, in agreement with general relativity. [Abridged.], Comment: This DESI Collaboration Key Publication is part of the 2024 publication series using the first year of observations (see https://data.desi.lbl.gov/doc/papers/). 55 pages, 10 figures

We present the samples of galaxies and quasars used for DESI 2024 cosmological analyses, drawn from the DESI Data Release 1 (DR1). We describe the construction of large-scale structure (LSS) catalogs from these samples, which include matched sets of synthetic reference `randoms' and weights that account for variations in the observed density of the samples due to experimental design and varying instrument performance. We detail how we correct for variations in observational completeness, the input `target' densities due to imaging systematics, and the ability to confidently measure redshifts from DESI spectra. We then summarize how remaining uncertainties in the corrections can be translated to systematic uncertainties for particular analyses. We describe the weights added to maximize the signal-to-noise of DESI DR1 2-point clustering measurements. We detail measurement pipelines applied to the LSS catalogs that obtain 2-point clustering measurements in configuration and Fourier space. The resulting 2-point measurements depend on window functions and normalization constraints particular to each sample, and we present the corrections required to match models to the data. We compare the configuration- and Fourier-space 2-point clustering of the data samples to that recovered from simulations of DESI DR1 and find they are, generally, in statistical agreement to within 2\% in the inferred real-space over-density field. The LSS catalogs, 2-point measurements, and their covariance matrices will be released publicly with DESI DR1., Comment: This DESI Collaboration Key Publication is part of the 2024 publication series using the first year of observations (see https://data.desi.lbl.gov/doc/papers/)

We present the measurements and cosmological implications of the galaxy two-point clustering using over 4.7 million unique galaxy and quasar redshifts in the range $0.1

We analyse the robustness of the DESI 2024 cosmological inference from fits to the full shape of the galaxy power spectrum to uncertainties in the Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) model of the galaxy-halo connection and the choice of priors on nuisance parameters. We assess variations in the recovered cosmological parameters across a range of mocks populated with different HOD models and find that shifts are often greater than 20% of the expected statistical uncertainties from the DESI data. We encapsulate the effect of such shifts in terms of a systematic covariance term, $\mathsf{C}_{\rm HOD}$, and an additional diagonal contribution quantifying the impact of our choice of nuisance parameter priors on the ability of the effective field theory (EFT) model to correctly recover the cosmological parameters of the simulations. These two covariance contributions are designed to be added to the usual covariance term, $\mathsf{C}_{\rm stat}$, describing the statistical uncertainty in the power spectrum measurement, in order to fairly represent these sources of systematic uncertainty. This approach is more general and robust to choices of model free parameters or additional external datasets used in cosmological fits than the alternative approach of adding systematic uncertainties at the level of the recovered marginalised parameter posteriors. We compare the approaches within the context of a fixed $\Lambda$CDM model and demonstrate that our method gives conservative estimates of the systematic uncertainty that nevertheless have little impact on the final posteriors obtained from DESI data., Comment: This DESI Collaboration Publication is part of the 2024 publication series using the first year of observations (see https://data.desi.lbl.gov/doc/papers/). 26 pages, 10 figures

We present three separate void catalogs created using a volume-limited sample of the DESI Year 1 Bright Galaxy Survey. We use the algorithms VoidFinder and V2 to construct void catalogs out to a redshift of z=0.24. We obtain 1,461 interior voids with VoidFinder, 420 with V2 using REVOLVER pruning, and 295 with V2 using VIDE pruning. Comparing our catalog with an overlapping SDSS void catalog, we find generally consistent void properties but significant differences in the void volume overlap, which we attribute to differences in the galaxy selection and survey masks. These catalogs are suitable for studying the variation in galaxy properties with cosmic environment and for cosmological studies., Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures

Using early data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey, we search for AGN signatures in 410,757 line-emitting galaxies. By employing the BPT emission-line ratio diagnostic diagram, we identify AGN in 75,928/296,261 ($\approx$25.6%) high-mass ($\log (M_{\star}/\rm M_{\odot}) >$ 9.5) and 2,444/114,496 ($\approx$2.1%) dwarf ($\log (M_{\star}/\rm M_{\odot}) \leq$ 9.5) galaxies. Of these AGN candidates, 4,181 sources exhibit a broad H$\alpha$ component, allowing us to estimate their BH masses via virial techniques. This study more than triples the census of dwarf AGN as well as that of intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH; $M_{\rm BH} \le 10^6~\rm M_{\odot}$) candidates, spanning a broad discovery space in stellar mass (7 $< \log (M_{\star}/\rm M_{\odot}) <$ 12) and redshift (0.001 $< \rm z <$ 0.45). The observed AGN fraction in dwarf galaxies ($\approx$2.1%) is nearly four times higher than prior estimates, primarily due to DESI's smaller fiber size, which enables the detection of lower luminosity dwarf AGN candidates. We also extend the $M_{\rm BH}$ - $M_{\star}$ scaling relation down to $\log (M_{\star}/\rm M_{\odot}) \approx$ 8.5 and $\log (M_{\rm BH}/M_{\odot}) \approx$ 4.4, with our results aligning well with previous low-redshift studies. The large statistical sample of dwarf AGN candidates from current and future DESI releases will be invaluable for enhancing our understanding of galaxy evolution at the low-mass end of the galaxy mass function., Comment: 35 pages, 22 figures, Submitted to AAS Journals, Comments are welcome

In this paper, we investigate the possibility of selecting high-redshift Lyman-Break Galaxies (LBG) using current and future broadband wide photometric surveys, such as UNIONS or the Vera C. Rubin LSST, using a Random Forest algorithm. This work is conducted in the context of future large-scale structure spectroscopic surveys like DESI-II, the next phase of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which will start around 2029. We use deep imaging data from HSC and CLAUDS on the COSMOS and XMM-LSS fields. To predict the selection performance of LBGs with image quality similar to UNIONS, we degrade the $u, g, r, i$ and $z$ bands to UNIONS depth. The Random Forest algorithm is trained with the $u,g,r,i$ and $z$ bands to classify LBGs in the $2.5 < z < 3.5$ range. We find that fixing a target density budget of $1,100$ deg$^{-2}$, the Random Forest approach gives a density of $z>2$ targets of $873$ deg$^{-2}$, and a density of $493$ deg$^{-2}$ of confirmed LBGs after spectroscopic confirmation with DESI. This UNIONS-like selection was tested in a dedicated spectroscopic observation campaign of 1,000 targets with DESI on the COSMOS field, providing a safe spectroscopic sample with a mean redshift of 3. This sample is used to derive forecasts for DESI-II, assuming a sky coverage of 5,000 deg$^2$. We predict uncertainties on Alcock-Paczynski parameters $\alpha_\perp$ and $\alpha_{\parallel}$ to be 0.7$\%$ and 1$\%$ for $2.6

Aims. We present an extensive catalog of the physical properties of more than a million galaxies within the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), one of the largest spectroscopic surveys to date. Spanning over a full variety of target types, including emission line galaxies and luminous red galaxies as well as quasars, our survey encompasses an unprecedented range of spectroscopic redshifts, stretching from 0 to 6. Methods. The physical properties, such as stellar masses and star formation rates, are derived via the CIGALE spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting code accounting for the contribution coming from active galactic nuclei (AGN). Based on the modeling of the optical-mid-infrared (grz complemented by WISE photometry) SEDs, we study galaxy properties with respect to their location on the main sequence. Results. We revise the dependence of stellar mass estimates on model choices and availability of the WISE photometry. The WISE information is mandatory to minimize the misclassification of star-forming galaxies as AGN. The lack of WISE bands in SED fits leads to elevated AGN fractions for 68% of star-forming galaxies identified using emission line diagnostic diagram but does not significantly affect their stellar mass nor star formation estimates., Comment: resubmitted after addressing minor referee comments

The advent of back-illuminated complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensors and their well-known advantages over charge-coupled devices (CCDs) make them an attractive technology for future X-ray missions. However, numerous challenges remain, including improving their depletion depth and identifying effective methods to calculate per-pixel gain conversion. We have tested a commercial Sony IMX290LLR CMOS sensor under X-ray light using an $^{55}$Fe radioactive source and collected X-ray photons for $\sim$15 consecutive days under stable conditions at regulated temperatures of 21{\deg}C and 26{\deg}C. At each temperature, the data set contained enough X-ray photons to produce one spectrum per pixel consisting only of single-pixel events. We determined the gain dispersion of its 2.1 million pixels using the peak fitting and the Energy Calibration by Correlation (ECC) methods. We measured a gain dispersion of 0.4\% at both temperatures and demonstrated the advantage of the ECC method in the case of spectra with low statistics. The energy resolution at 5.9 keV after the per-pixel gain correction is improved by $\gtrsim$10 eV for single-pixel and all event spectra, with single-pixel event energy resolution reaching $123.6\pm 0.2$ eV, close to the Fano limit of silicon sensors at room temperature. Finally, our long data acquisition demonstrated the excellent stability of the detector over more than 30 days under a flux of $10^4$ photons per second., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in JATIS

The Gemini South telescope is now equipped with a new high-resolution spectrograph called GHOST (the Gemini High-resolution Optical SpecTrograph). This instrument provides high-efficiency, high-resolution spectra covering 347-1060 nm in a single exposure of either one or two targets simultaneously, along with precision radial velocity spectroscopy utilizing an internal calibration source. It can operate at a spectral element resolving power of either 76000 or 56000, and can reach a SNR$\sim$5 in a 1hr exposure on a V$\sim$20.8 mag target in median site seeing, and dark skies (per resolution element). GHOST was installed on-site in June 2022, and we report performance after full integration to queue operations in November 2023, in addition to scientific results enabled by the integration observing runs. These results demonstrate the ability to observe a wide variety of bright and faint targets with high efficiency and precision. With GHOST, new avenues to explore high-resolution spectroscopy have opened up to the astronomical community. These are described, along with the planned and potential upgrades to the instrument., Comment: Accepted in the Astronomical Journal; 26 pages, 24 figures and 4 tables

We present new Galactic reddening maps of the high Galactic latitude sky using DESI imaging and spectroscopy. We directly measure the reddening of 2.6 million stars by comparing the observed stellar colors in $g-r$ and $r-z$ from DESI imaging with the synthetic colors derived from DESI spectra from the first two years of the survey. The reddening in the two colors is on average consistent with the \cite{fitzpatrick_correcting_1999} extinction curve with $R_\mathrm{V}=3.1$. We find that our reddening maps differ significantly from the commonly used \cite{schlegel_maps_1998} (SFD) reddening map (by up to 80 mmag in $E(B-V)$), and we attribute most of this difference to systematic errors in the SFD map. To validate the reddening map, we select a galaxy sample with extinction correction based on our reddening map, and this yields significantly better uniformity than the SFD extinction correction. Finally, we discuss the potential systematic errors in the DESI reddening measurements, including the photometric calibration errors that are the limiting factor on our accuracy. The $E(g-r)$ and $E(g-r)$ maps presented in this work, and for convenience their corresponding $E(B-V)$ maps with SFD calibration, are publicly available., Comment: Submitted to the Open Journal of Astrophysics. Associated data files: https://data.desi.lbl.gov/public/papers/mws/desi_dust/y2/v1/maps/

Measuring the growth of structure is a powerful probe for studying the dark sector, especially in light of the $\sigma_8$ tension between primary CMB anisotropy and low-redshift surveys. This paper provides a new measurement of the amplitude of the matter power spectrum, $\sigma_8$, using galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-CMB lensing power spectra of Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Legacy Imaging Surveys Emission-Line Galaxies and the $\textit{Planck}$ 2018 CMB lensing map. We create an ELG catalog composed of $27$ million galaxies and with a purity of $85\%$, covering a redshift range $0 < z < 3$, with $z_{\rm mean} = 1.09$. We implement several novel systematic corrections, such as jointly modeling the contribution of imaging systematics and photometric redshift uncertainties to the covariance matrix. We also study the impacts of various dust maps on cosmological parameter inference. We measure the cross-power spectra over $f_{\rm sky} = 0.25$ with a signal-to-background ratio of up to $ 30\sigma$. We find that the choice of dust maps to account for imaging systematics in estimating the ELG overdensity field has a significant impact on the final estimated values of $\sigma_8$ and $\Omega_{\rm M}$, with far-infrared emission-based dust maps preferring $\sigma_8$ to be as low as $0.702 \pm 0.030$, and stellar-reddening-based dust maps preferring as high as $0.719 \pm 0.030$. The highest preferred value is at $\sim 3 \sigma$ tension with the $\textit{Planck}$ primary anisotropy results. These findings indicate a need for tomographic analyses at high redshifts and joint modeling of systematics., Comment: 50 pages, 24 figures (figure data can be obtained at https://zenodo.org/records/13381499)

In the late stages of accretion leading up to the formation of planetesimals, particles grew to pebbles the size of 1-mm to tens of cm. That is the same size range that dominates the present-day comet mass loss. Meteoroids that size cause visible meteors on Earth. Here, we hypothesize that the size distribution and the physical and chemical properties of young meteoroid streams still contain information about the conditions in the solar nebula during these late stages of accretion. From observations of 47 young meteor showers, we find that freshly ejected meteoroids from long-period comets tend to have low bulk density and are distributed with equal surface area per log-mass interval (magnitude distribution index chi ~ 1.85), suggesting gentle accretion conditions. Jupiter-family comets, on the other hand, mostly produce meteoroids twice as dense and distributed with a steeper chi ~ 2.15 or even chi ~ 2.5, which implies that those pebbles grew from particles fragmenting in a collisional cascade or by catastrophic collisions, respectively. Both comet populations contain an admixture of compact materials that are sometimes sodium-poor, but Jupiter-family comets show a higher percentage (~8% on average) than long-period comet showers (~4%), and a wider range. While there are exceptions in both groups, the implication is that most long-period comets formed under gentle particle growth conditions, possibly near the 30 AU edge of the Trans Neptunian Disk, while most Jupiter family comets formed closer to the Sun where pebbles reached or passed the fragmentation barrier. This is possible if the Scattered Disk represents all objects scattered by Neptune during its migration, while the present-day outer Oort cloud formed only during and after the Sun had moved away from sibling stars., Comment: 82 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables

Galaxy scaling relations provide insights into the processes that drive galaxy evolution. The extension of these scaling relations into the dwarf galaxy regime is of particular interest. This is because dwarf galaxies represent a crucial stage in galaxy evolution, and understanding them could also shed light on their role in reionising the early Universe. There is currently no consensus on the processes that dominate the evolution of dwarfs. In this work we constrain the atomic gas sequence (stellar mass vs. atomic gas fraction) and mass-metallicity relation (stellar mass vs. gas phase metallicity) from dwarf ($10^{6.5}$ $\textrm{M}_{\odot}$) to massive ($10^{11.5}$ $\textrm{M}_{\odot}$) galaxies in the local Universe. The combined optical and 21-cm spectroscopic observations of the DESI and ALFALFA surveys allow us to simultaneously constrain both scaling relations. We find a slope change of the atomic gas sequence at a stellar mass of $\sim 10^{9} ~\textrm{M}_{\odot}$. We also find that the shape and scatter of the atomic gas sequence and mass-metallicity relation are strongly linked for both dwarfs and more massive galaxies. Consequently, the low mass slope change of the atomic gas sequence is imprinted onto the mass-metallicity relation of dwarf galaxies. The mass scale of the measured slope change is consistent with a predicted escape velocity threshold below which low mass galaxies experience significant supernova-driven gas loss, as well as with a reduction in cold gas accretion onto more massive galaxies., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) are young quiescent galaxies that have recently experienced a rapid decrease in star formation, allowing us to probe the fast-quenching period of galaxy evolution. In this work, we obtained HST WFC3/F110W imaging to measure the sizes of 171 massive ($\mathrm{log(M_{*}/M_{\odot})\sim\,11)}$ spectroscopically identified PSBs at $1

We present a measurement of the mean absorption of cool gas traced by Mg II (${\lambda\lambda 2796, 2803}$) around emission line galaxies (ELGs), spanning spatial scales from 20 kpc to 10 Mpc. The measurement is based on cross-matching the positions of about 2.5 million ELGs at $z = 0.75-1.65$ and the metal absorption in the spectra of 1.4 million background quasars with data provided by the Year 1 sample of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). The ELGs are divided into two redshift intervals: $0.75 < z < 1.0$ and $1.0 < z < 1.65$. We find that the composite spectra constructed by stacking the ELG-QSO pairs show evolution with redshift, with $z>1$ having a systematically higher signal of Mg II absorption. Within 1 Mpc, the covering fraction of the cool gas at $z > 1$ is higher than that of $z < 1$. The enhancement becomes less apparent especially if the projected distance $r_{p}>$1 Mpc. Also, ELGs with higher stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR) yield higher clustering of Mg II absorbers at $z<1$. For $z>1$, the covering fractions with different SFRs show little difference. The higher Mg II absorption at higher redshift also supports the observations of higher star formation at cosmic noon. Besides, the profile of Mg II absorption reveals a change of slope on scales of about 1 Mpc, consistent with the expected transition from a dark matter halo-dominated environment to a regime where clustering is dominated by halo-halo correlations. We estimate the cool gas density profile and derive the metal abundance at different redshifts. The growth of metal abundance suggests an increased presence of cool gas in the intergalactic medium (IGM) towards higher redshifts.

Recent advances in cosmological observations have provided an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the distribution of baryons relative to the underlying matter. In this work, we robustly show that the gas is much more extended than the dark matter at 40$\sigma$ and the amount of baryonic feedback at $z \lesssim 1$ strongly disfavors low-feedback models such as that of state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulation IllustrisTNG compared with high-feedback models such as that of the original Illustris simulation. This has important implications for bridging the gap between theory and observations and understanding galaxy formation and evolution. Furthermore, a better grasp of the baryon-dark matter link is critical to future cosmological analyses, which are currently impeded by our limited knowledge of baryonic feedback. Here, we measure the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), stacked on the luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) imaging survey. This is the first analysis to use photometric redshifts for reconstructing galaxy velocities. Due to the large number of galaxies comprising the DESI imaging survey, this is the highest signal-to-noise stacked kSZ measurement to date: we detect the signal at 13$\sigma$ and find that the gas is more spread out than the dark matter at $\sim$40$\sigma$. Our work opens up the possibility to recalibrate large hydrodynamical simulations using the kSZ effect. In addition, our findings point towards a way of alleviating inconsistencies between weak lensing surveys and cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments such as the `low $S_8$' tension, and shed light on long-standing enigmas in astrophysics such as the `missing baryon' problem., Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, submitting to PRL

We infer the growth of large scale structure over the redshift range $0.4\lesssim z \lesssim 1$ from the cross-correlation of spectroscopically calibrated Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) selected from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) legacy imaging survey with CMB lensing maps reconstructed from the latest Planck and ACT data. We adopt a hybrid effective field theory (HEFT) model that robustly regulates the cosmological information obtainable from smaller scales, such that our cosmological constraints are reliably derived from the (predominantly) linear regime. We perform an extensive set of bandpower- and parameter-level systematics checks to ensure the robustness of our results and to characterize the uniformity of the LRG sample. We demonstrate that our results are stable to a wide range of modeling assumptions, finding excellent agreement with a linear theory analysis performed on a restricted range of scales. From a tomographic analysis of the four LRG photometric redshift bins we find that the rate of structure growth is consistent with $\Lambda$CDM with an overall amplitude that is $\simeq5-7\%$ lower than predicted by primary CMB measurements with modest $(\sim2\sigma)$ statistical significance. From the combined analysis of all four bins and their cross-correlations with Planck we obtain $S_8 = 0.765\pm0.023$, which is less discrepant with primary CMB measurements than previous DESI LRG cross Planck CMB lensing results. From the cross-correlation with ACT we obtain $S_8 = 0.790^{+0.024}_{-0.027}$, while when jointly analyzing Planck and ACT we find $S_8 = 0.775^{+0.019}_{-0.022}$ from our data alone and $\sigma_8 = 0.772^{+0.020}_{-0.023}$ with the addition of BAO data. These constraints are consistent with the latest Planck primary CMB analyses at the $\simeq 1.6-2.2\sigma$ level, and are in excellent agreement with galaxy lensing surveys., Comment: 60 pages, 26 figures, comments welcome

With the number of supernovae observed expected to drastically increase thanks to large-scale surveys like the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), it is necessary that the tools we use to classify these objects keep up with this increase. We previously created Supernova Tagging and Classification (STag) to address this problem by employing machine learning techniques alongside logistic regression in order to assign 'tags' to spectra based on spectral features. STag II is a continuation of this work, which now makes use of model supernova spectra combined with real DESI spectra in order to train STag to better deal with realistic data. We also make use of the rlap score as a trustworthiness cut, making for a more robust and accurate supernova classifier than before., Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures. The STag code is available at https://github.com/wdavison909/STag

When measuring the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) scale from galaxy surveys, one typically assumes a fiducial cosmology when converting redshift measurements into comoving distances and also when defining input parameters for the reconstruction algorithm. A parameterised template for the model to be fitted is also created based on a (possibly different) fiducial cosmology. This model reliance can be considered a form of data compression, and the data is then analysed allowing that the true answer is different from the fiducial cosmology assumed. In this study, we evaluate the impact of the fiducial cosmology assumed in the BAO analysis of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey Data Release 1 (DR1) on the final measurements in DESI 2024 III. We utilise a suite of mock galaxy catalogues with survey realism that mirrors the DESI DR1 tracers: the bright galaxy sample (BGS), the luminous red galaxies (LRG), the emission line galaxies (ELG) and the quasars (QSO), spanning a redshift range from 0.1 to 2.1. We compare the four secondary AbacusSummit cosmologies against DESI's fiducial cosmology (Planck 2018). The secondary cosmologies explored include a lower cold dark matter density, a thawing dark energy universe, a higher number of effective species, and a lower amplitude of matter clustering. The mocks are processed through the BAO pipeline by consistently iterating the grid, template, and reconstruction reference cosmologies. We determine a conservative systematic contribution to the error of $0.1\%$ for both the isotropic and anisotropic dilation parameters $\alpha_{\rm iso}$ and $\alpha_{\rm AP}$. We then directly test the impact of the fiducial cosmology on DESI DR1 data., Comment: Supporting publication of DESI 2024 III: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Galaxies and Quasars

The large scale structure catalogs within DESI Data Release 1 (DR1) use nearly 6 million galaxies and quasars as tracers of the large-scale structure of the universe to measure the expansion history with baryon acoustic oscillations and the growth of structure with redshift-space distortions. In order to take advantage of DESI's unprecedented statistical power, we must ensure that the galaxy clustering measurements are unaffected by non-cosmological density fluctuations. One source of spurious fluctuations comes from variation in galaxy density with spectroscopic observing conditions, lowering the redshift efficiency (and thus galaxy density) in certain areas of the sky. We measure the uniformity of the redshift success rate for DESI luminous red galaxies (LRG), bright galaxies (BGS) and quasars (QSO), complementing the detailed discussion of emission line galaxy (ELG) systematics in a companion paper (Yu et al., 2024). We find small but significant fluctuations of up to 3% in redshift success rate with the effective spectroscopic signal-to-noise, and create and describe weights that remove these fluctuations. We also describe the process to identify and remove data from certain poorly performing fibers from DESI DR1, and measure the stability of the redshift success rate with time. Finally, we find small but significant correlations of redshift success rate with position on the focal plane, survey speed, and number of exposures required, and show the impact of weights correcting these trends on the power spectrum multipoles and on cosmological parameters from BAO and RSD fits. These corrections change the best-fit parameters by $<15\%$ of their statistical errors, and thus contribute negligibly to the overall DESI error budget., Comment: 53 pages, 41 figures. Supporting paper for DESI DR1 cosmological measurements

Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) uses more than 2.4 million Emission Line Galaxies (ELGs) for 3D large-scale structure (LSS) analyses in its Data Release 1 (DR1). Such large statistics enable thorough research on systematic uncertainties. In this study, we focus on spectroscopic systematics of ELGs. The redshift success rate ($f_{\rm goodz}$) is the relative fraction of secure redshifts among all measurements. It depends on observing conditions, thus introduces non-cosmological variations to the LSS. We, therefore, develop the redshift failure weight ($w_{\rm zfail}$) and a per-fibre correction ($\eta_{\rm zfail}$) to mitigate these dependences. They have minor influences on the galaxy clustering. For ELGs with a secure redshift, there are two subtypes of systematics: 1) catastrophics (large) that only occur in a few samples; 2) redshift uncertainty (small) that exists for all samples. The catastrophics represent 0.26\% of the total DR1 ELGs, composed of the confusion between O\,\textsc{ii} and sky residuals, double objects, total catastrophics and others. We simulate the realistic 0.26\% catastrophics of DR1 ELGs, the hypothetical 1\% catastrophics, and the truncation of the contaminated $1.31

We use the forward modeling pipeline, Obiwan, to study the imaging systematics of the Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) targeted by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). We update the Obiwan pipeline, which had previously been developed to simulate the optical images used to target DESI data, to further simulate WISE images in the infrared. This addition makes it possible to simulate the DESI LRGs sample, which utilizes WISE data in the target selection. Deep DESI imaging data combined with a method to account for biases in their shapes is used to define a truth sample of potential LRG targets. We simulate a total of 15 million galaxies to obtain a simulated LRG sample (Obiwan LRGs) that predicts the variations in target density due to imaging properties. We find that the simulations predict the trends with depth observed in the data, including how they depend on the intrinsic brightness of the galaxies. We observe that faint LRGs are the main contributing power of the imaging systematics trend induced by depth. We also find significant trends in the data against Galactic extinction that are not predicted by Obiwan. These trends depend strongly on the particular map of Galactic extinction chosen to test against, implying Large-Scale Structure systematic contamination (e.g. Cosmic-Infrared Background) in the Galactic extinction maps is a likely root cause. We additionally observe that the DESI LRGs sample exhibits a complex dependency on a combination of seeing, depth, and intrinsic galaxy brightness, which is not replicated by Obiwan, suggesting discrepancies between the current simulation settings and the actual observations. The detailed findings we present should be used to guide any observational systematics mitigation treatment for the clustering of the DESI LRG sample., Comment: 46 pages, 26 figures

Baryon acoustic oscillation data from the first year of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) provide near percent-level precision of cosmic distances in seven bins over the redshift range $z=0.1$-$4.2$. We use this data, together with other distance probes, to constrain the cosmic expansion history using some well-motivated physical classes of dark energy. In particular, we explore three physics-focused behaviors of dark energy from the equation of state and energy density perspectives: the thawing class (matching many simple quintessence potentials), emergent class (where dark energy comes into being recently, as in phase transition models), and mirage class (where phenomenologically the distance to CMB last scattering is close to that from a cosmological constant $\Lambda$ despite dark energy dynamics). All three classes fit the data at least as well as $\Lambda$CDM, and indeed can improve on it by $\Delta\chi^2\approx -5$ to $-17$ for the combination of DESI BAO with CMB and supernova data, while having one more parameter. The mirage class does essentially as well as $w_0w_a$CDM while having one less parameter. These classes of dynamical behaviors highlight worthwhile avenues for further exploration into the nature of dark energy., Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures. Metadata updated, comments welcome

We present the Lyman-$\alpha$ Continuum Analysis Network (LyCAN), a Convolutional Neural Network that predicts the unabsorbed quasar continuum within the rest-frame wavelength range of $1040-1600$ Angstroms based on the red side of the Lyman-$\alpha$ emission line ($1216-1600$ Angstroms). We developed synthetic spectra based on a Gaussian Mixture Model representation of Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (NMF) coefficients. These coefficients were derived from high-resolution, low-redshift ($z<0.2$) Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph quasar spectra. We supplemented this COS-based synthetic sample with an equal number of DESI Year 5 mock spectra. LyCAN performs extremely well on testing sets, achieving a median error in the forest region of 1.5% on the DESI mock sample, 2.0% on the COS-based synthetic sample, and 4.1% on the original COS spectra. LyCAN outperforms Principal Component Analysis (PCA)- and NMF-based prediction methods using the same training set by 40% or more. We predict the intrinsic continua of 83,635 DESI Year 1 spectra in the redshift range of $2.1 \leq z \leq 4.2$ and perform an absolute measurement of the evolution of the effective optical depth. This is the largest sample employed to measure the optical depth evolution to date. We fit a power-law of the form $\tau(z) = \tau_0 (1+z)^\gamma$ to our measurements and find $\tau_0 = (2.46 \pm 0.14)\times10^{-3}$ and $\gamma = 3.62 \pm 0.04$. Our results show particular agreement with high-resolution, ground-based observations around $z = 2$, indicating that LyCAN is able to predict the quasar continuum in the forest region with only spectral information outside the forest., Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables; accepted to ApJ

We implement Crossing Statistics to reconstruct in a model-agnostic manner the expansion history of the universe and properties of dark energy, using DESI Data Release 1 (DR1) BAO data in combination with one of three different supernova compilations (PantheonPlus, Union3, and DES-SN5YR) and Planck CMB observations. Our results hint towards an evolving and emergent dark energy behaviour, with negligible presence of dark energy at $z\gtrsim 1$, at varying significance depending on the data sets combined. In all these reconstructions, the cosmological constant lies outside the $95\%$ confidence intervals for some redshift ranges. This dark energy behaviour, reconstructed using Crossing Statistics, is in agreement with results from the conventional $w_0$--$w_a$ dark energy equation of state parametrization reported in the DESI Key cosmology paper. Our results add an extensive class of model-agnostic reconstructions with acceptable fits to the data, including models where cosmic acceleration slows down at low redshifts. We also report constraints on $H_0r_d$ from our model-agnostic analysis, independent of the pre-recombination physics., Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures. Version accepted in JCAP

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey will measure spectroscopic redshifts for millions of galaxies across roughly $14,000 \, \mathrm{deg}^2$ of the sky. Cross-correlating targets in the DESI survey with complementary imaging surveys allows us to measure and analyze shear distortions caused by gravitational lensing in unprecedented detail. In this work, we analyze a series of mock catalogs with ray-traced gravitational lensing and increasing sophistication to estimate systematic effects on galaxy-galaxy lensing estimators such as the tangential shear $\gamma_{\mathrm{t}}$ and the excess surface density $\Delta\Sigma$. We employ mock catalogs tailored to the specific imaging surveys overlapping with the DESI survey: the Dark Energy Survey (DES), the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) survey, and the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS). Among others, we find that fiber incompleteness can have significant effects on galaxy-galaxy lensing estimators but can be corrected effectively by up-weighting DESI targets with fibers by the inverse of the fiber assignment probability. Similarly, we show that intrinsic alignment and lens magnification are expected to be statistically significant given the precision forecasted for the DESI year-1 data set. Our study informs several analysis choices for upcoming cross-correlation studies of DESI with DES, HSC, and KiDS., Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, version accepted for publication

In anticipation of forthcoming data releases of current and future spectroscopic surveys, we present the validation tests and analysis of systematic effects within \texttt{velocileptors} modeling pipeline when fitting mock data from the \texttt{AbacusSummit} N-body simulations. We compare the constraints obtained from parameter compression methods to the direct fitting (Full-Modeling) approaches of modeling the galaxy power spectra, and show that the ShapeFit extension to the traditional template method is consistent with the Full-Modeling method within the standard $\Lambda$CDM parameter space. We show the dependence on scale cuts when fitting the different redshift bins using the ShapeFit and Full-Modeling methods. We test the ability to jointly fit data from multiple redshift bins as well as joint analysis of the pre-reconstruction power spectrum with the post-reconstruction BAO correlation function signal. We further demonstrate the behavior of the model when opening up the parameter space beyond $\Lambda$CDM and also when combining likelihoods with external datasets, namely the Planck CMB priors. Finally, we describe different parametrization options for the galaxy bias, counterterm, and stochastic parameters, and employ the halo model in order to physically motivate suitable priors that are necessary to ensure the stability of the perturbation theory., Comment: 56 pages, 23 figures. Supporting publication of DESI 2024 V: Analysis of the full shape of two-point clustering statistics from galaxies and quasars

In the era of precision cosmology, ensuring the integrity of data analysis through blinding techniques is paramount -- a challenge particularly relevant for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). DESI represents a monumental effort to map the cosmic web, with the goal to measure the redshifts of tens of millions of galaxies and quasars. Given the data volume and the impact of the findings, the potential for confirmation bias poses a significant challenge. To address this, we implement and validate a comprehensive blind analysis strategy for DESI Data Release 1 (DR1), tailored to the specific observables DESI is most sensitive to: Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), Redshift-Space Distortion (RSD) and primordial non-Gaussianities (PNG). We carry out the blinding at the catalog level, implementing shifts in the redshifts of the observed galaxies to blind for BAO and RSD signals and weights to blind for PNG through a scale-dependent bias. We validate the blinding technique on mocks, as well as on data by applying a second blinding layer to perform a battery of sanity checks. We find that the blinding strategy alters the data vector in a controlled way such that the BAO and RSD analysis choices do not need any modification before and after unblinding. The successful validation of the blinding strategy paves the way for the unblinded DESI DR1 analysis, alongside future blind analyses with DESI and other surveys., Comment: Supporting publication of "DESI 2024 II: Sample definitions, characteristics, and two-point clustering statistics", "DESI 2024 III: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Galaxies and Quasars", and "DESI 2024 V: Analysis of the full shape of two-point clustering statistics from galaxies and quasars". (v2 - update DESI references)

DESI aims to provide one of the tightest constraints on cosmological parameters by analysing the clustering of more than thirty million galaxies. However, obtaining such constraints requires special care in validating the methodology and efforts to reduce the computational time required through data compression and emulation techniques. In this work, we perform a rigorous validation of the PyBird power spectrum modelling code with both a traditional emulated Full-Modelling approach and the model-independent ShapeFit compression approach. By using cubic box simulations that accurately reproduce the clustering and precision of the DESI survey, we find that the cosmological constraints from ShapeFit and Full-Modelling are consistent with each other at the $\sim0.5\sigma$ level for the $\Lambda$CDM model. Both ShapeFit and Full-Modelling are also consistent with the true $\Lambda$CDM simulation cosmology down to a scale of $k_{\mathrm{max}} = 0.20 h\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ even after including the hexadecapole. For extended models such as the wCDM and the oCDM models, we find that including the hexadecapole can significantly improve the constraints and reduce the modelling errors with the same $k_{\mathrm{max}}$. While their discrepancies between the constraints from ShapeFit and Full-Modelling are more significant than $\Lambda$CDM, they remain consistent within $0.7\sigma$. Lastly, we also show that the constraints on cosmological parameters with the correlation function evaluated from PyBird down to $s_{\mathrm{min}} = 30 h^{-1} \mathrm{Mpc}$ are unbiased and consistent with the constraints from the power spectrum., Comment: Supporting publication of DESI 2024 V: Analysis of the full shape of two-point clustering statistics from galaxies and quasars (In prep). 51 pages, 21 figures, and 12 tables. 2nd revised version for JCAP

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will provide unprecedented information about the large-scale structure of our Universe. In this work, we study the robustness of the theoretical modelling of the power spectrum of FOLPS, a novel effective field theory-based package for evaluating the redshift space power spectrum in the presence of massive neutrinos. We perform this validation by fitting the AbacusSummit high-accuracy $N$-body simulations for Luminous Red Galaxies, Emission Line Galaxies and Quasar tracers, calibrated to describe DESI observations. We quantify the potential systematic error budget of FOLPS, finding that the modelling errors are fully sub-dominant for the DESI statistical precision within the studied range of scales. Additionally, we study two complementary approaches to fit and analyse the power spectrum data, one based on direct Full-Modelling fits and the other on the ShapeFit compression variables, both resulting in very good agreement in precision and accuracy. In each of these approaches, we study a set of potential systematic errors induced by several assumptions, such as the choice of template cosmology, the effect of prior choice in the nuisance parameters of the model, or the range of scales used in the analysis. Furthermore, we show how opening up the parameter space beyond the vanilla $\Lambda$CDM model affects the DESI observables. These studies include the addition of massive neutrinos, spatial curvature, and dark energy equation of state. We also examine how relaxing the usual Cosmic Microwave Background and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis priors on the primordial spectral index and the baryonic matter abundance, respectively, impacts the inference on the rest of the parameters of interest. This paper pathways towards performing a robust and reliable analysis of the shape of the power spectrum of DESI galaxy and quasar clustering using FOLPS., Comment: Supporting publication of DESI 2024 VII: Cosmological constraints from full-shape analyses of the two-point clustering statistics measurements, in preparation (2024)

In the contemporary era of high-precision spectroscopic surveys, led by projects like DESI, there is an increasing demand for optimizing the extraction of cosmological information from clustering data. This work conducts a thorough comparison of various methodologies for modeling the full shape of the two-point statistics in configuration space. We investigate the performance of both direct fits (Full-Modeling) and the parameter compression approaches (ShapeFit and Standard). We utilize the ABACUS-SUMMIT simulations, tailored to exceed DESI's precision requirements. Particularly, we fit the two-point statistics of three distinct tracers (LRG, ELG, and QSO), by employing a Gaussian Streaming Model in tandem with Convolution Lagrangian Perturbation Theory and Effective Field Theory. We explore methodological setup variations, including the range of scales, the set of galaxy bias parameters, the inclusion of the hexadecapole, as well as model extensions encompassing varying $n_s$ and allowing for $w_0w_a$CDM dark energy model. Throughout these varied explorations, while precision levels fluctuate and certain configurations exhibit tighter parameter constraints, our pipeline consistently recovers the parameter values of the mocks within $1\sigma$ in all cases for a 1-year DESI volume. Additionally, we compare the performance of configuration space analysis with its Fourier space counterpart using three models: PyBird, FOLPS and velocileptors, presented in companion papers. We find good agreement with the results from all these models., Comment: Supporting publication of DESI 2024 KP5

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) cosmology survey includes a Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) which will yield spectra for over ten million bright galaxies (r<20.2 AB mag). The resulting sample will be valuable for both cosmological and astrophysical studies. However, the star/galaxy separation criterion implemented in the nominal BGS target selection algorithm excludes quasar host galaxies in addition to bona fide stars. While this excluded population is comparatively rare (~3-4 per square degrees), it may hold interesting clues regarding galaxy and quasar physics. Therefore, we present a target selection strategy that was implemented to recover these missing active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the BGS sample. The design of the selection criteria was both motivated and confirmed using spectroscopy. The resulting BGS-AGN sample is uniformly distributed over the entire DESI footprint. According to DESI survey validation data, the sample comprises 93% quasi-stellar objects (QSOs), 3% narrow-line AGN or blazars with a galaxy contamination rate of 2% and a stellar contamination rate of 2%. Peaking around redshift z=0.5, the BGS-AGN sample is intermediary between quasars from the rest of the BGS and those from the DESI QSO sample in terms of redshifts and AGN luminosities. The stacked spectrum is nearly identical to that of the DESI QSO targets, confirming that the sample is dominated by quasars. We highlight interesting small populations reaching z>2 which are either faint quasars with nearby projected companions or very bright quasars with strong absorption features including the Lyman-apha forest, metal absorbers and/or broad absorption lines., Comment: 41 pages, 31 figures, submitted to the AAS journals. Comments are welcome

We present a sample of 341 "little red dots" (LRDs) spanning the redshift range $z\sim2-11$ using data from the CEERS, PRIMER, JADES, UNCOVER and NGDEEP surveys. These sources are likely heavily-reddened AGN that trace a previously-hidden phase of dust-obscured black hole growth in the early Universe. Unlike past use of color indices to identify LRDs, we employ continuum slope fitting using shifting bandpasses to sample the same rest-frame emission blueward and redward of the Balmer break. This approach allows us to identify LRDs over a wider redshift range and is less susceptible to contamination from galaxies with strong breaks that otherwise lack a rising red continuum. The redshift distribution of our sample increases at $z<8$ and then undergoes a rapid decline at $z\sim4.5$, which may tie the emergence, and obscuration, of these sources to the inside-out growth that galaxies experience during this epoch. We find that LRDs are 2-3 dex more numerous than bright quasars at $z\sim5-7$, but their number density is only 0.6-1 dex higher than X-ray and UV selected AGN at these redshifts. Within our sample, we have identified the first X-ray detected LRDs at $z=3.1$ and $z=4.66$. An X-ray spectral analysis confirms that these AGN are moderately obscured with $\log\,(N_{\rm H}/{\rm cm}^{2}$) of $23.3^{+0.4}_{-1.3}$ and $22.72^{+0.13}_{-0.16}$. Our analysis reveals that reddened AGN emission dominates their rest-optical light, while the rest-UV originates from their host galaxies. We also present NIRSpec follow-up spectroscopy of 17 LRDs that show broad emission lines consistent with AGN activity. The confirmed AGN fraction of our sample is $71\%$ for sources with F444W$<26.5$. In addition, we find three LRDs with narrow blue-shifted Balmer absorption features in their spectra, suggesting an outflow of high-density, low ionization gas from near the central engine of these faint, red AGN., Comment: 23 pages, 17 figures, submitted to ApJ

Ongoing and upcoming galaxy redshift surveys, such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey, will observe vast regions of sky and a wide range of redshifts. In order to model the observations and address various systematic uncertainties, N-body simulations are routinely adopted, however, the number of large simulations with sufficiently high mass resolution is usually limited by available computing time. Therefore, achieving a simulation volume with the effective statistical errors significantly smaller than those of the observations becomes prohibitively expensive. In this study, we apply the Convergence Acceleration by Regression and Pooling (CARPool) method to mitigate the sample variance of the DESI-like galaxy clustering in the AbacusSummit simulations, with the assistance of the quasi-N-body simulations FastPM. Based on the halo occupation distribution (HOD) models, we construct different FastPM galaxy catalogs, including the luminous red galaxies (LRGs), emission line galaxies (ELGs), and quasars, with their number densities and two-point clustering statistics well matched to those of AbacusSummit. We also employ the same initial conditions between AbacusSummit and FastPM to achieve high cross-correlation, as it is useful in effectively suppressing the variance. Our method of reducing noise in clustering is equivalent to performing a simulation with volume larger by a factor of 5 and 4 for LRGs and ELGs, respectively. We also mitigate the standard deviation of the LRG bispectrum with the triangular configurations $k_2=2k_1=0.2$ h/Mpc by a factor of 1.6. With smaller sample variance on galaxy clustering, we are able to constrain the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) scale parameters to higher precision. The CARPool method will be beneficial to better constrain the theoretical systematics of BAO, redshift space distortions (RSD) and primordial non-Gaussianity (NG)., Comment: 37 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables, matched to the accepted version of JCAP; comments welcome

We present strong constraints on the spacetime variation of the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ using the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). In this pilot work, we utilize $\sim110,000$ galaxies with strong and narrow O III $\lambda\lambda$4959,5007 emission lines to measure the relative variation $\Delta\alpha/\alpha$ in space and time. The O III doublet is arguably the best choice for this purpose owing to its wide wavelength separation between the two lines and its strong emission in many galaxies. Our galaxy sample spans a redshift range of $0

We present a simple, differentiable method for predicting emission line strengths from rest-frame optical continua using an empirically-determined mapping. Extensive work has been done to develop mock galaxy catalogues that include robust predictions for galaxy photometry, but reliably predicting the strengths of emission lines has remained challenging. Our new mapping is a simple neural network implemented using the JAX Python automatic differentiation library. It is trained on Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Early Release data to predict the equivalent widths (EWs) of the eight brightest optical emission lines (including H$\alpha$, H$\beta$, [O II], and [O III]) from a galaxy's rest-frame optical continuum. The predicted EW distributions are consistent with the observed ones when noise is accounted for, and we find Spearman's rank correlation coefficient $\rho_s > 0.87$ between predictions and observations for most lines. Using a non-linear dimensionality reduction technique (UMAP), we show that this is true for galaxies across the full range of observed spectral energy distributions. In addition, we find that adding measurement uncertainties to the predicted line strengths is essential for reproducing the distribution of observed line-ratios in the BPT diagram. Our trained network can easily be incorporated into a differentiable stellar population synthesis pipeline without hindering differentiability or scalability with GPUs. A synthetic catalogue generated with such a pipeline can be used to characterise and account for biases in the spectroscopic training sets used for training and calibration of photo-$z$'s, improving the modelling of systematic incompleteness for the Rubin Observatory LSST and other surveys., Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. Published in MNRAS

In this paper, we present the estimation of systematics related to the halo occupation distribution (HOD) modeling in the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) distance measurement of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) 2024 analysis. This paper focuses on the study of HOD systematics for luminous red galaxies (LRG). We consider three different HOD models for LRGs, including the base 5-parameter vanilla model and two extensions to it, that we refer to as baseline and extended models. The baseline model is described by the 5 vanilla HOD parameters, an incompleteness factor and a velocity bias parameter, whereas the extended one also includes a galaxy assembly bias and a satellite profile parameter. We utilize the 25 dark matter simulations available in the AbacusSummit simulation suite at $z=$ 0.8 and generate mock catalogs for our different HOD models. To test the impact of the HOD modeling in the position of the BAO peak, we run BAO fits for all these sets of simulations and compare the best-fit BAO-scaling parameters $\alpha_{\rm iso}$ and $\alpha_{\rm AP}$ between every pair of HOD models. We do this for both Fourier and configuration spaces independently, using post-reconstruction measurements. We find a 3.3$\sigma$ detection of HOD systematic for $\alpha_{\rm AP}$ in configuration space with an amplitude of 0.19%. For the other cases, we did not find a 3$\sigma$ detection, and we decided to compute a conservative estimation of the systematic using the ensemble of shifts between all pairs of HOD models. By doing this, we quote a systematic with an amplitude of 0.07% in $\alpha_{\rm iso}$ for both Fourier and configuration spaces; and of 0.09% in $\alpha_{\rm AP}$ for Fourier space., Comment: 36 pages, 9 figures. Supporting publication of DESI 2024 III: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Galaxies and Quasars

We present an optimized way of producing the fast semi-analytical covariance matrices for the Legendre moments of the two-point correlation function, taking into account survey geometry and mimicking the non-Gaussian effects. We validate the approach on simulated (mock) catalogs for different galaxy types, representative of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Data Release 1, used in 2024 analyses. We find only a few percent differences between the mock sample covariance matrix and our results, which can be expected given the approximate nature of the mocks, although we do identify discrepancies between the shot-noise properties of the DESI fiber assignment algorithm and the faster approximation (emulator) used in the mocks. Importantly, we find a close agreement (<=8% relative differences) in the projected errorbars for distance scale parameters for the baryon acoustic oscillation measurements. This confirms our method as an attractive alternative to simulation-based covariance matrices, especially for non-standard models or galaxy sample selections, making it particularly relevant to the broad current and future analyses of DESI data., Comment: This DESI Publication is part of the 2024 series using the first year of observations (see https://data.desi.lbl.gov/doc/papers/). 41 pages, 4 figures. Major rewrite after v2. Accepted to JCAP. Code available at https://github.com/oliverphilcox/RascalC and https://github.com/cosmodesi/RascalC-scripts/tree/DESI2024. Figure and table data available at https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10895161