ABSTRACT A joint analysis of the clustering of galaxies and their weak gravitational lensing signal is well-suited to simultaneously constrain the galaxy-halo connection as well as the cosmological ...parameters by breaking the degeneracy between galaxy bias and the amplitude of clustering signal. In a series of two papers, we perform such an analysis at the highest redshift ( ) in the literature using CMASS galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Eleventh Data Release (BOSS DR11) catalog spanning 8300 deg2. In this paper, we present details of the clustering and weak lensing measurements of these galaxies. We define a subsample of 400,916 CMASS galaxies based on their redshifts and stellar-mass estimates so that the galaxies constitute an approximately volume-limited and similar population over the redshift range . We obtain a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) for the galaxy clustering measurement. We also explore the redshift and stellar-mass dependence of the clustering signal. For the weak lensing measurement, we use existing deeper imaging data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey with publicly available shape and photometric redshift catalogs from CFHTLenS, but only in a 105 deg2 area that overlaps with BOSS. This restricts the lensing measurement to only 5084 CMASS galaxies. After careful systematic tests, we find a highly significant detection of the CMASS weak lensing signal, with total S/N . These measurements form the basis of the halo occupation distribution and cosmology analysis presented in More et al. (Paper II).
ABSTRACT
We analyse the full shape of anisotropic clustering measurements from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey quasar sample together with the combined galaxy sample from the ...Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. We obtain constraints on the cosmological parameters independent of the Hubble parameter h for the extensions of the Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) models, focusing on cosmologies with free dark energy equation of state parameter w. We combine the clustering constraints with those from the latest cosmic microwave background data from Planck to obtain joint constraints for these cosmologies for w and the additional extension parameters – its time evolution wa, the physical curvature density ωK and the neutrino mass sum ∑mν. Our joint constraints are consistent with a flat ΛCDM cosmological model within 68 per cent confidence limits. We demonstrate that the Planck data are able to place tight constraints on the clustering amplitude today, σ12, in cosmologies with varying w and present the first constraints for the clustering amplitude for such cosmologies, which is found to be slightly higher than the ΛCDM value. Additionally, we show that when we vary w and allow for non-flat cosmologies and the physical curvature density is used, Planck prefers a curved universe at 4σ significance, which is ∼2σ higher than when using the relative curvature density ΩK. Finally, when w is varied freely, clustering provides only a modest improvement (of 0.021 eV) on the upper limit of ∑mν.
Abstract
We derive distances and masses of stars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment Data Release 17 using simple neural networks. Training ...data for distances comes from Gaia EDR3, supplemented by literature distances for star clusters. For masses, the network is trained using asteroseismic masses for evolved stars and isochrone masses for main-sequence stars. The models are trained on effective temperature, surface gravity, metallicity, and carbon and nitrogen abundances. We found that our distance predictions have median fractional errors that range from ≈20% at low log
g
and ≈10% at higher log
g
with a standard deviation of ≈11%. The mass predictions have a standard deviation of ±12%. Using the masses, we derive ages for evolved stars based on the correspondence between mass and age for giant stars given by isochrones. The results are compiled into a Value Added Catalog called DistMass that contains distances and masses for 733,901 independent spectra, plus ages for 396,548 evolved stars.
We describe the automated spectral classification, redshift determination, and parameter measurement pipeline in use for the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky ...Survey UI (SDSS-III) as of the survey's ninth data release (DR9), encompassing 831,000 moderate-resolution optical spectra. We give a review of the algorithms employed, and describe the changes to the pipeline that have been implemented for BOSS relative to previous SDSS-I/II versions, including new sets of stellar, galaxy, and quasar redshift templates. We test the accuracy of these statistical redshift error estimates using repeat observations, finding them underestimated by a factor of 1.19-1.34 for galaxies and by a factor of two for quasars. We assess the impact of sky-subtraction quality, signal-to-noise ratio, and other factors on galaxy redshift success. Finally, we document known issues with the BOSS DR9 spectroscopic data set and describe directions of ongoing development
Abstract
We extract cosmological information from the anisotropic power-spectrum measurements from the recently completed Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), extending the concept of ...clustering wedges to Fourier space. Making use of new fast-Fourier-transform-based estimators, we measure the power-spectrum clustering wedges of the BOSS sample by filtering out the information of Legendre multipoles ℓ > 4. Our modelling of these measurements is based on novel approaches to describe non-linear evolution, bias and redshift-space distortions, which we test using synthetic catalogues based on large-volume N-body simulations. We are able to include smaller scales than in previous analyses, resulting in tighter cosmological constraints. Using three overlapping redshift bins, we measure the angular-diameter distance, the Hubble parameter and the cosmic growth rate, and explore the cosmological implications of our full-shape clustering measurements in combination with cosmic microwave background and Type Ia supernova data. Assuming a Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmology, we constrain the matter density to $\Omega _{\mathrm{M}}= 0.311_{-0.010}^{+0.009}$ and the Hubble parameter to $H_0 = 67.6_{-0.6}^{+0.7} \, \, \mathrm{km \, s^{-1} \, Mpc^{-1}}$, at a confidence level of 68 per cent. We also allow for non-standard dark energy models and modifications of the growth rate, finding good agreement with the ΛCDM paradigm. For example, we constrain the equation-of-state parameter to $w = -1.019_{-0.039}^{+0.048}$. This paper is part of a set that analyses the final galaxy-clustering data set from BOSS. The measurements and likelihoods presented here are combined with others in Alam et al. to produce the final cosmological constraints from BOSS.
With the largest spectroscopic galaxy survey volume drawn from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), we can extract cosmological constraints from the measurements of redshift ...and geometric distortions at quasi-linear scales (e.g. above 50 h
−1 Mpc). We analyse the broad-range shape of the monopole and quadrupole correlation functions of the BOSS Data Release 12 (DR12) CMASS galaxy sample, at the effective redshift z = 0.59, to obtain constraints on the Hubble expansion rate H(z), the angular- diameter distance D
A
(z), the normalized growth rate f(z)σ8(z), and the physical matter density Ωm h
2. We obtain robust measurements by including a polynomial as the model for the systematic errors, and find it works very well against the systematic effects, e.g. ones induced by stars and seeing. We provide accurate measurements {D
A
(0.59)r
s,fid/r
s
, H(0.59)r
s
/r
s,fid, f(0.59)σ8(0.59), Ωm h
2} = {1427 ± 26 Mpc, 97.3 ± 3.3 km s−1 Mpc−1, 0.488 ± 0.060, 0.135 ± 0.016}, where r
s
is the comoving sound horizon at the drag epoch and r
s,fid = 147.66 Mpc is the sound scale of the fiducial cosmology used in this study. The parameters which are not well constrained by our galaxy clustering analysis are marginalized over with wide flat priors. Since no priors from other data sets, e.g. cosmic microwave background (CMB), are adopted and no dark energy models are assumed, our results from BOSS CMASS galaxy clustering alone may be combined with other data sets, i.e. CMB, SNe, lensing or other galaxy clustering data to constrain the parameters of a given cosmological model. The uncertainty on the dark energy equation of state parameter, w, from CMB+CMASS is about 8 per cent. The uncertainty on the curvature fraction, Ω
k
, is 0.3 per cent. We do not find deviation from flat ΛCDM.
Abstract
We use the statistical power of the MaNGA integral-field spectroscopic galaxy survey to improve the definition of strong line diagnostic boundaries used to classify gas ionization properties ...in galaxies. We detect line emission from 3.6 million spaxels distributed across 7400 individual galaxies spanning a wide range of stellar masses, star formation rates, and morphological types, and find that the gas-phase velocity dispersion
σ
H
α
correlates strongly with traditional optical emission-line ratios such as S
ii
/H
α
, N
ii
/H
α
, O
i
/H
α
, and O
iii
/H
β
. Spaxels whose line ratios are most consistent with ionization by galactic H
ii
regions exhibit a narrow range of dynamically cold line-of-sight velocity distributions (LOSVDs) peaked around 25 km s
−1
corresponding to a galactic thin disk, while those consistent with ionization by active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and low-ionization emission-line regions (LI(N)ERs) have significantly broader LOSVDs extending to 200 km s
−1
. Star-forming, AGN, and LI(N)ER regions are additionally well separated from each other in terms of their stellar velocity dispersion, stellar population age, H
α
equivalent width, and typical radius within a given galaxy. We use our observations to revise the traditional emission-line diagnostic classifications so that they reliably identify distinct dynamical samples both in two-dimensional representations of the diagnostic line ratio space and in a multidimensional space that accounts for the complex folding of the star-forming model surface. By comparing the MaNGA observations to the SDSS single-fiber galaxy sample, we note that the latter is systematically biased against young, low-metallicity star-forming regions that lie outside of the 3″ fiber footprint.
We present distance scale measurements from the baryon acoustic oscillation signal in the constant stellar mass and low-redshift sample samples from the Data Release 12 of the Baryon Oscillation ...Spectroscopic Survey. The total volume probed is 14.5 Gpc3, a 10 per cent increment from Data Release 11. From an analysis of the spherically averaged correlation function, we infer a distance to z = 0.57 of
$D_V(z)r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d}/r_{\rm d} = 2028\pm 21$
Mpc and a distance to z = 0.32 of
$D_V(z)r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d}/r_{\rm d} = 1264\pm 22$
Mpc assuming a cosmology in which
$r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d} = 147.10$
Mpc. From the anisotropic analysis, we find an angular diameter distance to z = 0.57 of
$D_{\rm A}(z)r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d}/r_{\rm d} = 1401\pm 21$
Mpc and a distance to z = 0.32 of 981 ± 20 Mpc, a 1.5 and 2.0 per cent measurement, respectively. The Hubble parameter at z = 0.57 is
$H(z)r_{\rm d}/r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d} = 100.3\pm 3.7$
km s−1 Mpc−1 and its value at z = 0.32 is 79.2 ± 5.6 km s−1 Mpc−1, a 3.7 and 7.1 per cent measurement, respectively. These cosmic distance scale constraints are in excellent agreement with a Λ cold dark matter model with cosmological parameters released by the recent Planck 2015 results.
We study the spatially resolved excitation properties of the ionized gas in a sample of 646 galaxies using integral field spectroscopy data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV Mapping Nearby ...Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) programme. Making use of Baldwin–Philips–Terlevich diagnostic diagrams we demonstrate the ubiquitous presence of extended (kpc scale) low-ionization emission-line regions (LIERs) in both star-forming and quiescent galaxies. In star-forming galaxies LIER emission can be associated with diffuse ionized gas, most evident as extraplanar emission in edge-on systems. In addition, we identify two main classes of galaxies displaying LIER emission: ‘central LIER’ (cLIER) galaxies, where central LIER emission is spatially extended, but accompanied by star formation at larger galactocentric distances, and ‘extended LIER’ (eLIER) galaxies, where LIER emission is extended throughout the whole galaxy. In eLIER and cLIER galaxies, LIER emission is associated with radially flat, low H α equivalent width of line emission (<3 Å) and stellar population indices demonstrating the lack of young stellar populations, implying that line emission follows tightly the continuum due to the underlying old stellar population. The H α surface brightness radial profiles are always shallower than 1/r2 and the line ratio O iii λ5007/O ii λλ3727,29 (a tracer of the ionization parameter of the gas) shows a flat gradient. This combined evidence strongly supports the scenario in which LIER emission is not due to a central point source but to diffuse stellar sources, the most likely candidates being hot, evolved (post-asymptotic giant branch) stars. Shocks are observed to play a significant role in the ionization of the gas only in rare merging and interacting systems.
We have used flux-transmission correlations in Lyα forests to measure the imprint of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). The study uses spectra of 157 783 quasars in the redshift range 2.1 ≤ z ≤ 3.5 ...from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data release 12 (DR12). Besides the statistical improvements on our previous studies using SDSS DR9 and DR11, we have implemented numerous improvements in the analysis procedure, allowing us to construct a physical model of the correlation function and to investigate potential systematic errors in the determination of the BAO peak position. The Hubble distance, DH = c/H(z), relative to the sound horizon is DH(z = 2.33) /rd = 9.07 ± 0.31. The best-determined combination of comoving angular-diameter distance, DM, and the Hubble distance is found to be DH0.7DM0.3 /rd = 13.94 ± 0.35. This value is 1.028 ± 0.026 times the prediction of the flat-ΛCDM model consistent with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy spectrum. The errors include marginalization over the effects of unidentified high-density absorption systems and fluctuations in ultraviolet ionizing radiation. Independently of the CMB measurements, the combination of our results and other BAO observations determine the open-ΛCDM density parameters to be ΩM = 0.296 ± 0.029, ΩΛ = 0.699 ± 0.100 and Ωk = −0.002 ± 0.119.
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