arXiv subjects

A. Muñoz-Gutiérrez

Publications and source records attributed to A. Muñoz-Gutiérrez.

47 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

CMB lensing and Lyα forest cross bispectrum from DESI's first-year quasar sample

The squeezed cross-bispectrum \bispeconed\ between the gravitational lensing in the Cosmic Microwave Background and the 1D \lya\ forest power spectrum can constrain bias parameters and break degeneracies between $σ_8$ and other cosmological parameters. We detect \bispeconed\ with $4.8σ$ significance at an effective redshift $z_\mathrm{eff}=2.4$ using Planck PR3 lensing map and over 280,000 quasar spectra from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument's first-year data. We test our measurement against metal contamination and foregrounds such as Galactic extinction and clusters of galaxies by deprojecting the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. We compare our results to a tree-level perturbation theory calculation and find reasonable agreement between the model and measurement.

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arXiv2024

Mock data sets for the Eboss and DESI Lyman-$α$ forest surveys

We present a publicly-available code to generate sets of mock Lyman-$α$ (\lya) forest data that have realistic large-scale correlations including those due to the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAO). The primary purpose of these mocks is to test the analysis procedures of the Extended Baryon Oscillation Survey (eBOSS) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopy Instrument (DESI) surveys. The transmitted flux fraction, $F(λ)$, of background quasars due to \lya\ absorption in the intergalactic medium (IGM) is simulated using the Fluctuating Gunn-Petterson Approximation (FGPA) applied to Gaussian random fields produced through the use of fast Fourier transforms (FFT). The output includes the IGM-\lya\ transmitted flux fraction along quasar lines of sight and a catalog of high-column-density systems appropriately placed at high-density regions of the IGM. This output serves as input to additional code that superimposes the IGM tranmission on realistic quasar spectra, adds absorption by high-column-density systems and metals, and simulates instrumental transmission and noise. Redshift space distortions (RSD) of the flux correlations are implemented by including the large-scale velocity-gradient field in the FGPA resulting in a correlation function of $F(λ)$ that can be accurately predicted. One hundred realizations have been produced over the 14,000 deg$^2$ DESI survey footprint with 100 quasars per deg$^{2}$. The analysis of these realizations shows that the correlations of $F(λ)$ follows the prediction within the accuracy of eBOSS survey. The most time-consuming part of the mock production occurs before application of the FGPA, and the existing pre-FGPA forests can be used to easily produce new mock sets with modified redshift-dependent bias parameters or observational conditions

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arXiv2024

Validation of the DESI 2024 Ly$α$ forest BAO analysis using synthetic datasets

The first year of data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) contains the largest set of Lyman-$α$ (Ly$α$) forest spectra ever observed. This data, collected in the DESI Data Release 1 (DR1) sample, has been used to measure the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) feature at redshift $z=2.33$. In this work, we use a set of 150 synthetic realizations of DESI DR1 to validate the DESI 2024 Ly$α$ forest BAO measurement. The synthetic data sets are based on Gaussian random fields using the log-normal approximation. We produce realistic synthetic DESI spectra that include all major contaminants affecting the Ly$α$ forest. The synthetic data sets span a redshift range $1.8<z<3.8$, and are analysed using the same framework and pipeline used for the DESI 2024 Ly$α$ forest BAO measurement. To measure BAO, we use both the Ly$α$ auto-correlation and its cross-correlation with quasar positions. We use the mean of correlation functions from the set of DESI DR1 realizations to show that our model is able to recover unbiased measurements of the BAO position. We also fit each mock individually and study the population of BAO fits in order to validate BAO uncertainties and test our method for estimating the covariance matrix of the Ly$α$ forest correlation functions. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results and identify the needs for the next generation of Ly$α$ forest synthetic data sets, with the top priority being to simulate the effect of BAO broadening due to non-linear evolution.

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arXiv2024

Full Modeling and Parameter Compression Methods in configuration space for DESI 2024 and beyond

In the contemporary era of high-precision spectroscopic surveys, led by projects like DESI, there is an increasing demand for optimizing the extraction of cosmological information from clustering data. This work conducts a thorough comparison of various methodologies for modeling the full shape of the two-point statistics in configuration space. We investigate the performance of both direct fits (Full-Modeling) and the parameter compression approaches (ShapeFit and Standard). We utilize the ABACUS-SUMMIT simulations, tailored to exceed DESI's precision requirements. Particularly, we fit the two-point statistics of three distinct tracers (LRG, ELG, and QSO), by employing a Gaussian Streaming Model in tandem with Convolution Lagrangian Perturbation Theory and Effective Field Theory. We explore methodological setup variations, including the range of scales, the set of galaxy bias parameters, the inclusion of the hexadecapole, as well as model extensions encompassing varying $n_s$ and allowing for $w_0w_a$CDM dark energy model. Throughout these varied explorations, while precision levels fluctuate and certain configurations exhibit tighter parameter constraints, our pipeline consistently recovers the parameter values of the mocks within $1σ$ in all cases for a 1-year DESI volume. Additionally, we compare the performance of configuration space analysis with its Fourier space counterpart using three models: PyBird, FOLPS and velocileptors, presented in companion papers. We find good agreement with the results from all these models.

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arXiv2024

Optimal Reconstruction of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations for DESI 2024

Baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) provide a robust standard ruler to measure the expansion history of the Universe through galaxy clustering. Density-field reconstruction is now a widely adopted procedure for increasing the precision and accuracy of the BAO detection. With the goal of finding the optimal reconstruction settings to be used in the DESI 2024 galaxy BAO analysis, we assess the sensitivity of the post-reconstruction BAO constraints to different choices in our analysis configuration, performing tests on blinded data from the first year of DESI observations (DR1), as well as on mocks that mimic the expected clustering and selection properties of the DESI DR1 target samples. Overall, we find that BAO constraints remain robust against multiple aspects in the reconstruction process, including the choice of smoothing scale, treatment of redshift-space distortions, fiber assignment incompleteness, and parameterizations of the BAO model. We also present a series of tests that DESI followed in order to assess the maturity of the end-to-end galaxy BAO pipeline before the unblinding of the large-scale structure catalogs.

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arXiv2024

Impact of Systematic Redshift Errors on the Cross-correlation of the Lyman-$α$ Forest with Quasars at Small Scales Using DESI Early Data

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will measure millions of quasar spectra by the end of its 5 year survey. Quasar redshift errors impact the shape of the Lyman-$α$ forest correlation functions, which can affect cosmological analyses and therefore cosmological interpretations. Using data from the DESI Early Data Release and the first two months of the main survey, we measure the systematic redshift error from an offset in the cross-correlation of the Lyman-$α$ forest with quasars. We find evidence for a redshift dependent bias causing redshifts to be underestimated with increasing redshift, stemming from improper modeling of the Lyman-$α$ optical depth in the templates used for redshift estimation. New templates were derived for the DESI Year 1 quasar sample at $z > 1.6$ and we found the redshift dependent bias, $Δr_\parallel$, increased from $-1.94 \pm 0.15$ $h^{-1}$ Mpc to $-0.08 \pm 0.04$ $h^{-1}$ Mpc ($-205 \pm 15~\text{km s}^{-1}$ to $-9.0 \pm 4.0~\text{km s}^{-1}$). These new templates will be used to provide redshifts for the DESI Year 1 quasar sample.

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arXiv2024

HOD-Dependent Systematics in Emission Line Galaxies for the DESI 2024 BAO analysis

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will provide precise measurements of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) to constrain the expansion history of the Universe and set stringent constraints on dark energy. Therefore, precise control of the global error budget due to various systematic effects is required for the DESI 2024 BAO analysis. In this work, we focus on the robustness of the BAO analysis against the Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) modeling for the Emission Line Galaxy (ELG) tracer. Based on a common dark matter simulation, our analysis relies on HOD mocks tuned to early DESI data, namely the One-Percent survey data. To build the mocks, we use several HOD models for the ELG tracer as well as extensions to the baseline HOD models. Among these extensions, we consider distinct recipes for galactic conformity and assembly bias. We perform two independent analyses in the Fourier space and in the configuration space. We recover the BAO signal from two-point measurements after performing reconstruction on our mocks. Additionally, we also apply the control variates technique to reduce sample variance noise. Our BAO analysis can recover the isotropic BAO parameter $α_\text{iso}$ within 0.1\% and the Alcock Paczynski parameter $α_\text{AP}$ within 0.3\%. Overall, we find that our systematic error due to the HOD dependence is below 0.17\%, with the Fourier space analysis being more robust against the HOD systematics. We conclude that our analysis pipeline is robust enough against the HOD systematics for the ELG tracer in the DESI 2024 BAO analysis.

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arXiv2024

Identifying Quasars from the DESI Bright Galaxy Survey

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) cosmology survey includes a Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) which will yield spectra for over ten million bright galaxies (r<20.2 AB mag). The resulting sample will be valuable for both cosmological and astrophysical studies. However, the star/galaxy separation criterion implemented in the nominal BGS target selection algorithm excludes quasar host galaxies in addition to bona fide stars. While this excluded population is comparatively rare (~3-4 per square degrees), it may hold interesting clues regarding galaxy and quasar physics. Therefore, we present a target selection strategy that was implemented to recover these missing active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the BGS sample. The design of the selection criteria was both motivated and confirmed using spectroscopy. The resulting BGS-AGN sample is uniformly distributed over the entire DESI footprint. According to DESI survey validation data, the sample comprises 93% quasi-stellar objects (QSOs), 3% narrow-line AGN or blazars with a galaxy contamination rate of 2% and a stellar contamination rate of 2%. Peaking around redshift z=0.5, the BGS-AGN sample is intermediary between quasars from the rest of the BGS and those from the DESI QSO sample in terms of redshifts and AGN luminosities. The stacked spectrum is nearly identical to that of the DESI QSO targets, confirming that the sample is dominated by quasars. We highlight interesting small populations reaching z>2 which are either faint quasars with nearby projected companions or very bright quasars with strong absorption features including the Lyman-apha forest, metal absorbers and/or broad absorption lines.

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arXiv2024

Optimal 1D Ly$α$ Forest Power Spectrum Estimation -- III. DESI early data

The one-dimensional power spectrum $P_{\mathrm{1D}}$ of the Ly$α$ forest provides important information about cosmological and astrophysical parameters, including constraints on warm dark matter models, the sum of the masses of the three neutrino species, and the thermal state of the intergalactic medium. We present the first measurement of $P_{\mathrm{1D}}$ with the quadratic maximum likelihood estimator (QMLE) from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey early data sample. This early sample of $54~600$ quasars is already comparable in size to the largest previous studies, and we conduct a thorough investigation of numerous instrumental and analysis systematic errors to evaluate their impact on DESI data with QMLE. We demonstrate the excellent performance of the spectroscopic pipeline noise estimation and the impressive accuracy of the spectrograph resolution matrix with two-dimensional image simulations of raw DESI images that we processed with the DESI spectroscopic pipeline. We also study metal line contamination and noise calibration systematics with quasar spectra on the red side of the Ly$α$ emission line. In a companion paper, we present a similar analysis based on the Fast Fourier Transform estimate of the power spectrum. We conclude with a comparison of these two approaches and implications for the upcoming DESI Year 1 analysis.

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arXiv2023

The Lyman-$α$ forest catalog from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Early Data Release

We present and validate the catalog of Lyman-$α$ forest fluctuations for 3D analyses using the Early Data Release (EDR) from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey. We used 88,511 quasars collected from DESI Survey Validation (SV) data and the first two months of the main survey (M2). We present several improvements to the method used to extract the Lyman-$α$ absorption fluctuations performed in previous analyses from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). In particular, we modify the weighting scheme and show that it can improve the precision of the correlation function measurement by more than 20%. This catalog can be downloaded from https://data.desi.lbl.gov/public/edr/vac/edr/lya/fuji/v0.3 and it will be used in the near future for the first DESI measurements of the 3D correlations in the Lyman-$α$ forest.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

3D Correlations in the Lyman-$α$ Forest from Early DESI Data

We present the first measurements of Lyman-$α$ (Ly$α$) forest correlations using early data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). We measure the auto-correlation of Ly$α$ absorption using 88,509 quasars at $z>2$, and its cross-correlation with quasars using a further 147,899 tracer quasars at $z\gtrsim1.77$. Then, we fit these correlations using a 13-parameter model based on linear perturbation theory and find that it provides a good description of the data across a broad range of scales. We detect the BAO peak with a signal-to-noise ratio of $3.8σ$, and show that our measurements of the auto- and cross-correlations are fully-consistent with previous measurements by the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS). Even though we only use here a small fraction of the final DESI dataset, our uncertainties are only a factor of 1.7 larger than those from the final eBOSS measurement. We validate the existing analysis methods of Ly$α$ correlations in preparation for making a robust measurement of the BAO scale with the first year of DESI data.

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