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arXiv · 1208.0022

The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III

Kyle S. Dawson·David J. Schlegel·Christopher P. Ahn·Scott F. Anderson·Éric Aubourg·Stephen Bailey·Robert H. Barkhouser·Julian E. Bautista·Alessandra Beifiori·Andreas A. Berlind·Vaishali Bhardwaj·Dmitry Bizyaev·Cullen H. Blake·Michael R. Blanton·Michael Blomqvist·Adam S. Bolton·Arnaud Borde·Jo Bovy·W. N. Brandt·Howard Brewington·Jon Brinkmann·Peter J. Brown·Joel R. Brownstein·Kevin Bundy·N. G. Busca·William Carithers·Aurelio R. Carnero·Michael A. Carr·Yanmei Chen·Johan Comparat·Natalia Connolly·Frances Cope·Rupert A. C. Croft·Antonio J. Cuesta·Luiz N. da Costa·James R. A. Davenport·Timothée Delubac·Roland de Putter·Saurav Dhital·Anne Ealet·Garrett L. Ebelke·Daniel J. Eisenstein·S. Escoffier·Xiaohui Fan·N. Filiz Ak·Hayley Finley·Andreu Font-Ribera·R. Génova-Santos·James E. Gunn·Hong Guo·Daryl Haggard·Patrick B. Hall·Jean-Christophe Hamilton·Ben Harris·David W. Harris·Shirley Ho·David W. Hogg·Diana Holder·Klaus Honscheid·Joe Huehnerhoff·Beatrice Jordan·Wendell P. Jordan·Guinevere Kauffmann·Eyal A. Kazin·David Kirkby·Mark A. Klaene·Jean-Paul Kneib·Jean-Marc Le Goff·Khee-Gan Lee·Daniel C. Long·Craig P. Loomis·Britt Lundgren·Robert H. Lupton·Marcio A. G. Maia·Martin Makler·Elena Malanushenko·Viktor Malanushenko·Rachel Mandelbaum·Marc Manera·Claudia Maraston·Daniel Margala·Karen L. Masters·Cameron K. McBride·Patrick McDonald·Ian D. McGreer·Richard McMahon·Olga Mena·Jordi Miralda-Escudé·Antonio D. Montero-Dorta·Francesco Montesano·Demitri Muna·Adam D. Myers·Tracy Naugle·Robert C. Nichol·Pasquier Noterdaeme·Sebastián E. Nuza·Matthew D. Olmstead·Audrey Oravetz·Daniel J. Oravetz·Russell Owen
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Abstract

The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) is designed to measure the scale of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the clustering of matter over a larger volume than the combined efforts of all previous spectroscopic surveys of large scale structure. BOSS uses 1.5 million luminous galaxies as faint as i=19.9 over 10,000 square degrees to measure BAO to redshifts z<0.7. Observations of neutral hydrogen in the Lyman alpha forest in more than 150,000 quasar spectra (g<22) will constrain BAO over the redshift range 2.15<z<3.5. Early results from BOSS include the first detection of the large-scale three-dimensional clustering of the Lyman alpha forest and a strong detection from the Data Release 9 data set of the BAO in the clustering of massive galaxies at an effective redshift z = 0.57. We project that BOSS will yield measurements of the angular diameter distance D_A to an accuracy of 1.0% at redshifts z=0.3 and z=0.57 and measurements of H(z) to 1.8% and 1.7% at the same redshifts. Forecasts for Lyman alpha forest constraints predict a measurement of an overall dilation factor that scales the highly degenerate D_A(z) and H^{-1}(z) parameters to an accuracy of 1.9% at z~2.5 when the survey is complete. Here, we provide an overview of the selection of spectroscopic targets, planning of observations, and analysis of data and data quality of BOSS.

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Kyle S. Dawson, David J. Schlegel, Christopher P. Ahn, Scott F. Anderson, Éric Aubourg, Stephen Bailey, Robert H. Barkhouser, Julian E. Bautista, Alessandra Beifiori, Andreas A. Berlind, Vaishali Bhardwaj, Dmitry Bizyaev, Cullen H. Blake, Michael R. Blanton, Michael Blomqvist, Adam S. Bolton, Arnaud Borde, Jo Bovy, W. N. Brandt, Howard Brewington, Jon Brinkmann, Peter J. Brown, Joel R. Brownstein, Kevin Bundy, N. G. Busca, William Carithers, Aurelio R. Carnero, Michael A. Carr, Yanmei Chen, Johan Comparat, Natalia Connolly, Frances Cope, Rupert A. C. Croft, Antonio J. Cuesta, Luiz N. da Costa, James R. A. Davenport, Timothée Delubac, Roland de Putter, Saurav Dhital, Anne Ealet, Garrett L. Ebelke, Daniel J. Eisenstein, S. Escoffier, Xiaohui Fan, N. Filiz Ak, Hayley Finley, Andreu Font-Ribera, R. Génova-Santos, James E. Gunn, Hong Guo, Daryl Haggard, Patrick B. Hall, Jean-Christophe Hamilton, Ben Harris, David W. Harris, Shirley Ho, David W. Hogg, Diana Holder, Klaus Honscheid, Joe Huehnerhoff, Beatrice Jordan, Wendell P. Jordan, Guinevere Kauffmann, Eyal A. Kazin, David Kirkby, Mark A. Klaene, Jean-Paul Kneib, Jean-Marc Le Goff, Khee-Gan Lee, Daniel C. Long, Craig P. Loomis, Britt Lundgren, Robert H. Lupton, Marcio A. G. Maia, Martin Makler, Elena Malanushenko, Viktor Malanushenko, Rachel Mandelbaum, Marc Manera, Claudia Maraston, Daniel Margala, Karen L. Masters, Cameron K. McBride, Patrick McDonald, Ian D. McGreer, Richard McMahon, Olga Mena, Jordi Miralda-Escudé, Antonio D. Montero-Dorta, Francesco Montesano, Demitri Muna, Adam D. Myers, Tracy Naugle, Robert C. Nichol, Pasquier Noterdaeme, Sebastián E. Nuza, Matthew D. Olmstead, Audrey Oravetz, Daniel J. Oravetz, Russell Owen. 2012-11-07. The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256%2F145%2F1%2F10

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