High-redshift transverse BAO measurements with the SDSS quasar catalog

Abstract

Transverse Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) measurements offer a robust geometric probe of the Universe expansion, presenting minimal dependence on fiducial cosmological models. In this work, we analyze the SDSS-DR16 quasar catalog to search for the 2D BAO signal in the unexplored redshift interval $1.5 \leq z \leq 2.0$. Performing a fine tomographic analysis in 50 thin disjoint redshift shells ($\Delta z = 0.01$), to suppress line-of-sight projection smearing, and incorporating a full analytical covariance matrix, we detect the acoustic peak in two uncorrelated redshift shells: $\theta_{\rm BAO} = 1.911^{\circ} \pm 0.062^{\circ}$ and $\theta_{\rm BAO} = 1.727^{\circ} \pm 0.081^{\circ}$ centered at $z_{\rm eff} = 1.725$ and $z_{\rm eff} = 1.775$, with statistical significances of $3.4\,\sigma$ and $3.0\,\sigma$, respectively. By introducing a dimensionless shift parameter $\alpha$ in our empirical parameterization procedure, we then obtain two scaled angular diameter distances: $D_A/r_d = 11.00 \pm 0.36$ at $z_{\rm eff}=1.725$ and $D_A/r_d = 11.96 \pm 0.56$ at $z_{\rm eff}=1.775$. Incorporating these two novel data points into a literature compilation of 16 transverse BAO measurements, we perform a flat-$\Lambda$CDM parameter estimation, obtaining $\Omega_{m,0} = 0.41 \pm 0.06$ and $h r_d = 99.3 \pm 2.0$ Mpc. Our measurements successfully bridge a significant observational gap at high redshift, which remain highly consistent with the constraints reported by the Planck and DESI collaborations, demonstrating the potential of quasar tomographic surveys for dynamical dark energy studies.