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arXiv · 2512.03228

The DESI DR1 Peculiar Velocity Survey: Mock Catalog

Abstract

We describe the production of the official set of mock catalogs for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Peculiar Velocity Survey (DESI-PV) Data Release 1 (DR1). Our mock catalogs reproduce the Bright Galaxy Survey number density and clustering at low redshift $(z<0.1)$ and the DESI PV samples of Fundamental plane and Tully-Fisher distances, from which we derive peculiar velocities. We carefully match mock and data properties and we mimic measurements of distance indicators and peculiar velocities, which follow the same statistical properties as real data. Mock samples of type-Ia supernovae also complement the other two distance indicators. Our 675 available mock realizations were used consistently by our three different methodologies described in our companion papers that measure the growth rate of structure $f\sigma_8$ with DESI PV DR1. Those mocks allow us to perform precise tests of clustering models and uncertainty estimation to an unprecedented level of accuracy, and compute correlations between methodologies. The consensus value for the DESI DR1 PV growth rate measurement is $f\sigma_8 = 0.450 \pm 0.055$. This sample of mock catalogs represents the largest and most realistic set for cosmological measurements with peculiar velocities to date.

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J. Bautista, A. J. Amsellem, V. Aronica, S. BenZvi, C. Blake, A. Carr, T. M. Davis, K. Douglass, T. Dumerchat, C. Howlett, Y. Lai, A. Nguyen, A. Palmese, F. Qin, C. Ravoux, C. Ross, K. Said, R. J. Turner, J. Aguilar, S. Ahlen, D. Bianchi, D. Brooks, T. Claybaugh, A. Cuceu, A. de la Macorra, P. Doel, A. Font-Ribera, J. E. Forero-Romero, E. Gaztañaga, S. Gontcho A Gontcho, G. Gutierrez, H. K. Herrera-Alcantar, K. Honscheid, D. Huterer, M. Ishak, R. Joyce, A. Kremin, C. Lamman, M. Landriau, L. Le Guillou, A. Leauthaud, M. Manera, A. Meisner, R. Miquel, J. Moustakas, A. Muñoz-Gutiérrez, S. Nadathur, W. J. Percival, F. Prada, I. Pérez-Ràfols, G. Rossi, E. Sanchez, D. Schlegel, M. Schubnell, H. Seo, J. Silber, D. Sprayberry, G. Tarlé, B. A. Weaver, P. Zarrouk, R. Zhou, H. Zou. 2025-12-02. The DESI DR1 Peculiar Velocity Survey: Mock Catalog. https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.03228

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