We present the data release 14 Quasar catalog (DR14Q) from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV). This catalog includes all ...SDSS-IV/eBOSS objects that were spectroscopically targeted as quasar candidates and that are confirmed as quasars via a new automated procedure combined with a partial visual inspection of spectra, have luminosities Mi z = 2 < −20.5 $M_{\textrm{i}} \left z=2 \right < -20.5$ Mi z=2 <−20.5 (in a Λ CDM cosmology with H0 = 70 km s−1 Mpc−1, Ω M =0.3, and Ω Λ = 0.7), and either display at least one emission line with a full width at half maximum larger than 500 km s−1 or, if not, have interesting/complex absorption features. The catalog also includes previously spectroscopically-confirmed quasars from SDSS-I, II, and III. The catalog contains 526 356 quasars (144 046 are new discoveries since the beginning of SDSS-IV) detected over 9376 deg2 (2044 deg2 having new spectroscopic data available) with robust identification and redshift measured by a combination of principal component eigenspectra. The catalog is estimated to have about 0.5% contamination. Redshifts are provided for the Mg II emission line. The catalog identifies 21 877 broad absorption line quasars and lists their characteristics. For each object, the catalog presents five-band (u, g, r, i, z) CCD-based photometry with typical accuracy of 0.03 mag. The catalog also contains X-ray, ultraviolet, near-infrared, and radio emission properties of the quasars, when available, from other large-area surveys. The calibrated digital spectra, covering the wavelength region 3610–10 140 Å at a spectral resolution in the range 1300 < R < 2500, can be retrieved from the SDSS Science Archiver Server.
We present the Data Release 12 Quasar catalog (DR12Q) from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. This catalog includes all SDSS-III/BOSS objects that ...were spectroscopically targeted as quasar candidates during the full survey and that are confirmed as quasars via visual inspection of the spectra, have luminosities Mi z = 2 < −20.5 (in a ΛCDM cosmology with H0 = 70 km s-1 Mpc-1, ΩM = 0.3, and ΩΛ = 0.7), and either display at least one emission line with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) larger than 500 km s-1 or, if not, have interesting/complex absorption features. The catalog also includes previously known quasars (mostly from SDSS-I and II) that were reobserved by BOSS. The catalog contains 297 301 quasars (272 026 are new discoveries since the beginning of SDSS-III) detected over 9376 deg2 with robust identification and redshift measured by a combination of principal component eigenspectra. The number of quasars with z > 2.15 (184 101, of which 167 742 are new discoveries) is about an order of magnitude greater than the number of z > 2.15 quasars known prior to BOSS. Redshifts and FWHMs are provided for the strongest emission lines (C iv, C iii, Mg ii). The catalog identifies 29 580 broad absorption line quasars and lists their characteristics. For each object, the catalog presents five-band (u, g, r, i, z) CCD-based photometry with typical accuracy of 0.03 mag together with some information on the optical morphology and the selection criteria. When available, the catalog also provides information on the optical variability of quasars using SDSS and Palomar Transient Factory multi-epoch photometry. The catalog also contains X-ray, ultraviolet, near-infrared, and radio emission properties of the quasars, when available, from other large-area surveys. The calibrated digital spectra, covering the wavelength region 3600–10 500 Å at a spectral resolution in the range 1300 < R < 2500, can be retrieved from the SDSS Catalog Archive Server. We also provide a supplemental list of an additional 4841 quasars that have been identified serendipitously outside of the superset defined to derive the main quasar catalog.
We present a new measurement of the optical quasar luminosity function (QLF), using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III: Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (SDSS-III: BOSS). From the ...SDSS-III Data Release Nine, a uniform sample of 22,301 i lap 21.8 quasars are selected over an area of 2236 deg super(2), with confirmed spectroscopic redshifts between 2.2 < z < 3.5, filling in a key part of the luminosity-redshift plane for optical quasar studies. At z lap 2.2 our data are reasonably well fit by a pure luminosity evolution model, and only a weak signature of "AGN downsizing" is seen, in line with recent studies of the hard X-ray luminosity function. We compare our measured QLF to a number of theoretical models and find that models making a variety of assumptions about quasar triggering and halo occupation can fit our data over a wide range of redshifts and luminosities.
We present the Data Release 10 Quasar (DR10Q) catalog from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. The catalog includes all BOSS objects that were ...targeted as quasar candidates during the first 2.5 years of the survey and that are confirmed as quasars via visual inspection of the spectra, have luminosities Miz = 2 <−20.5 (in a ΛCDM cosmology with H0 = 70 km s-1 Mpc-1, ΩM = 0.3, and ΩΛ = 0.7), and either display at least one emission line with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) larger than 500 km s-1 or, if not, have interesting/complex absorption features. The catalog also includes known quasars (mostly from SDSS-I and II) that were reobserved by BOSS. The catalog contains 166 583 quasars (74 454 are new discoveries since SDSS-DR9) detected over 6373 deg2 with robust identification and redshift measured by a combination of principal component eigenspectra. The number of quasars with z > 2.15 (117 668) is ~5 times greater than the number of z > 2.15 quasars known prior to BOSS. Redshifts and FWHMs are provided for the strongest emission lines (C iv, C iii, Mg ii). The catalog identifies 16 461 broad absorption line quasars and gives their characteristics. For each object, the catalog presents five-band (u, g, r, i, z) CCD-based photometry with typical accuracy of 0.03 mag and information on the optical morphology and selection method. The catalog also contains X-ray, ultraviolet, near-infrared, and radio emission properties of the quasars, when available, from other large-area surveys. The calibrated digital spectra cover the wavelength region 3600−10 500 Å at a spectral resolution in the range 1300 < R < 2500; the spectra can be retrieved from the SDSS Catalog Archive Server. We also provide a supplemental list of an additional 2376 quasars that have been identified among the galaxy targets of the SDSS-III/BOSS.
We measure the large-scale cross-correlation of quasars with the Lyman alpha forest absorption, using over 164,000 quasars from Data Release 11 of the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic ...Survey. We extend the previous study of roughly 60,000 quasars from Data Release 9 to larger separations, allowing a measurement of the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) scale along the line of sight $c/(H(z=2.36) ~ r_s) = 9.0 \pm 0.3$ and across the line of sight $D_A(z=2.36)~ / ~ r_s = 10.8 \pm 0.4$, consistent with CMB and other BAO data. Using the best fit value of the sound horizon from Planck data ($r_s=147.49 Mpc$), we can translate these results to a measurement of the Hubble parameter of $H(z=2.36) = 226 \pm 8 km/s$ and of the angular diameter distance of $D_A(z=2.36) = 1590 \pm 60 Mpc$. The measured cross-correlation function and an update of the code to fit the BAO scale (baofit) are made publicly available.
We explore the cosmological implications of the angle-averaged correlation function, ...(s), and the clustering wedges, ...(s) and ...(s), of the LOWZ and CMASS galaxy samples from Data Releases 10 ...and 11 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. Our results show no significant evidence for a deviation from the standard ... cold dark matter model. The combination of the information from our clustering measurements with recent data from the cosmic microwave background is sufficient to constrain the curvature of the Universe to ...k = 0.0010 ± 0.0029, the total neutrino mass to ... < 0.23 eV (95 per cent confidence level), the effective number of relativistic species to Neff = 3.31 ± 0.27 and the dark energy equation of state to wDE = -1.051 ± 0.076. These limits are further improved by adding information from Type Ia supernovae and baryon acoustic oscillations from other samples. In particular, this data set combination is completely consistent with a time-independent dark energy equation of state, in which case we find wDE = -1.024 ± 0.052. We explore the constraints on the growth rate of cosmic structures assuming f(z) = ... and obtain ... = 0.69 ± 0.15, consistent with the predictions of general relativity of ... = 0.55. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
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
The standard model of cosmology, lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM), is the simplest model that matches the current observations, but it relies on two hypothetical components, to wit, dark matter and ...dark energy. Future galaxy surveys and cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments will independently shed light on these components, but a joint analysis that includes cross-correlations will be necessary to extract as much information as possible from the observations. In this paper, we carry out a multiprobe analysis based on pseudo-spectra and test it on publicly available data sets. We use CMB temperature anisotropies and CMB lensing observations from Planck as well as the spectroscopic galaxy and quasar samples of SDSS-III/BOSS, taking advantage of the large areas covered by these surveys. We build a likelihood to simultaneously analyse the auto and cross spectra of CMB lensing and tracer overdensity maps before running Markov chain Monte Carlo to assess the constraining power of the combined analysis. We then add the CMB temperature anisotropies likelihood and obtain constraints on cosmological parameters (H_0, ω_b, ω_c, ln 10^10A_s, n_s, and |$z$|_re) and galaxy biases. We demonstrate that the joint analysis can additionally constrain the total mass of neutrinos Σm_ν as well as the dark energy equation of state |$w$| at once (for a total of eight cosmological parameters), which is impossible with either of the data sets considered separately. Finally, we discuss limitations of the analysis related to, e.g. the theoretical precision of the models, particularly in the non-linear regime.
We use the observed anisotropic clustering of galaxies in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 11 CMASS sample to measure the linear growth rate of structure, the Hubble expansion ...rate and the comoving distance scale. Our sample covers 8498 deg2 and encloses an effective volume of 6 Gpc3 at an effective redshift of
. We find fσ8 = 0.441 ± 0.044, H = 93.1 ± 3.0 km s−1 Mpc−1 and D
A = 1380 ± 23 Mpc when fitting the growth and expansion rate simultaneously. When we fix the background expansion to the one predicted by spatially flat Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model in agreement with recent Planck
results, we find fσ8 = 0.447 ± 0.028 (6 per cent accuracy). While our measurements are generally consistent with the predictions of ΛCDM and general relativity, they mildly favour models in which the strength of gravitational interactions is weaker than what is predicted by general relativity. Combining our measurements with recent cosmic microwave background data results in tight constraints on basic cosmological parameters and deviations from the standard cosmological model. Separately varying these parameters, we find w = −0.983 ± 0.075 (8 per cent accuracy) and γ = 0.69 ± 0.11 (16 per cent accuracy) for the effective equation of state of dark energy and the growth rate index, respectively. Both constraints are in good agreement with the standard model values of w = −1 and γ = 0.554.
We have developed two independent methods for measuring the one-dimensional power spectrum of the transmitted flux in the Lyman-α forest. The first method is based on a Fourier transform and the ...second on a maximum-likelihood estimator. The two methods are independent and have different systematic uncertainties. Determination of the noise level in the data spectra was subject to a new treatment, because of its significant impact on the derived power spectrum. We applied the two methods to 13 821 quasar spectra from SDSS-III/BOSS DR9 selected from a larger sample of over 60 000 spectra on the basis of their high quality, high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), and good spectral resolution. The power spectra measured using either approach are in good agreement over all twelve redshift bins from ⟨z⟩ = 2.2 to ⟨z⟩ = 4.4, and scales from 0.001 km s-1 to 0.02 km s-1. We determined the methodological andinstrumental systematic uncertainties of our measurements. We provide a preliminary cosmological interpretation of our measurements using available hydrodynamical simulations. The improvement in precision over previously published results from SDSS is a factor 2–3 for constraints on relevant cosmological parameters. For a ΛCDM model and using a constraint on H0 that encompasses measurements based on the local distance ladder and on CMB anisotropies, we infer σ8 = 0.83 ± 0.03 and ns = 0.97 ± 0.02 based on H i absorption in the range 2.1 < z < 3.7.
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