THE BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY OF SDSS-III Academic Article uri icon

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 10,000deg2 to measure BAO to redshifts z < 0.7. Observations of neutral hydrogen in the Ly forest in more than 150,000quasar 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 Ly 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 dA 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 Ly forest constraints predict a measurement of an overall dilation factor that scales the highly degenerate DA (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. 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

published proceedings

  • ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL

altmetric score

  • 20.388

author list (cited authors)

  • Dawson, K. S., Schlegel, D. J., Ahn, C. P., Anderson, S. F., Aubourg, E., Bailey, S., ... Zheng, Z.

citation count

  • 1357

complete list of authors

  • Dawson, Kyle S||Schlegel, David J||Ahn, Christopher P||Anderson, Scott F||Aubourg, Eric||Bailey, Stephen||Barkhouser, Robert H||Bautista, Julian E||Beifiori, Alessandra||Berlind, Andreas A||Bhardwaj, Vaishali||Bizyaev, Dmitry||Blake, Cullen H||Blanton, Michael R||Blomqvist, Michael||Bolton, Adam S||Borde, Arnaud||Bovy, Jo||Brandt, WN||Brewington, Howard||Brinkmann, Jon||Brown, Peter J||Brownstein, Joel R||Bundy, Kevin||Busca, NG||Carithers, William||Carnero, Aurelio R||Carr, Michael A||Chen, Yanmei||Comparat, Johan||Connolly, Natalia||Cope, Frances||Croft, Rupert AC||Cuesta, Antonio J||da Costa, Luiz N||Davenport, James RA||Delubac, Timothee||de Putter, Roland||Dhital, Saurav||Ealet, Anne||Ebelke, Garrett L||Eisenstein, Daniel J||Escoffier, S||Fan, Xiaohui||Ak, N Filiz||Finley, Hayley||Font-Ribera, Andreu||Genova-Santos, R||Gunn, James E||Guo, Hong||Haggard, Daryl||Hall, Patrick B||Hamilton, Jean-Christophe||Harris, Ben||Harris, David W||Ho, Shirley||Hogg, David W||Holder, Diana||Honscheid, Klaus||Huehnerhoff, Joe||Jordan, Beatrice||Jordan, Wendell P||Kauffmann, Guinevere||Kazin, Eyal A||Kirkby, David||Klaene, Mark A||Kneib, Jean-Paul||Le Goff, Jean-Marc||Lee, Khee-Gan||Long, Daniel C||Loomis, Craig P||Lundgren, Britt||Lupton, Robert H||Maia, Marcio AG||Makler, Martin||Malanushenko, Elena||Malanushenko, Viktor||Mandelbaum, Rachel||Manera, Marc||Maraston, Claudia||Margala, Daniel||Masters, Karen L||McBride, Cameron K||McDonald, Patrick||McGreer, Ian D||McMahon, Richard G||Mena, Olga||Miralda-Escude, Jordi||Montero-Dorta, Antonio D||Montesano, Francesco||Muna, Demitri||Myers, Adam D||Naugle, Tracy||Nichol, Robert C||Noterdaeme, Pasquier||Nuza, Sebastian E||Olmstead, Matthew D||Oravetz, Audrey||Oravetz, Daniel J||Owen, Russell||Padmanabhan, Nikhil||Palanque-Delabrouille, Nathalie||Pan, Kaike||Parejko, John K||Paris, Isabelle||Percival, Will J||Perez-Fournon, Ismael||Perez-Rafols, Ignasi||Petitjean, Patrick||Pfaffenberger, Robert||Pforr, Janine||Pieri, Matthew M||Prada, Francisco||Price-Whelan, Adrian M||Raddick, M Jordan||Rebolo, Rafael||Rich, James||Richards, Gordon T||Rockosi, Constance M||Roe, Natalie A||Ross, Ashley J||Ross, Nicholas P||Rossi, Graziano||Rubino-Martin, JA||Samushia, Lado||Sanchez, Ariel G||Sayres, Conor||Schmidt, Sarah J||Schneider, Donald P||Scoccola, CG||Seo, Hee-Jong||Shelden, Alaina||Sheldon, Erin||Shen, Yue||Shu, Yiping||Slosar, Anze||Smee, Stephen A||Snedden, Stephanie A||Stauffer, Fritz||Steele, Oliver||Strauss, Michael A||Streblyanska, Alina||Suzuki, Nao||Swanson, Molly EC||Tal, Tomer||Tanaka, Masayuki||Thomas, Daniel||Tinker, Jeremy L||Tojeiro, Rita||Tremonti, Christy A||Magana, M Vargas||Verde, Licia||Viel, Matteo||Wake, David A||Watson, Mike||Weaver, Benjamin A||Weinberg, David H||Weiner, Benjamin J||West, Andrew A||White, Martin||Wood-Vasey, WM||Yeche, Christophe||Zehavi, Idit||Zhao, Gong-Bo||Zheng, Zheng

publication date

  • January 2013