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Anand Raichoor

Publications and source records attributed to Anand Raichoor.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

ODIN: Confirmation and 3D Reconstruction of Six Massive Protoclusters at Cosmic Noon

Protoclusters represent sites of accelerated galaxy formation and extreme astrophysical activity characteristic of dense environments. Identifying massive protoclusters and mapping their spatial structures are therefore crucial first steps in understanding how the large-scale environment influences galaxy evolution. We combine wide-field Ly$α$ imaging from the ODIN survey with extensive DESI and ancillary spectroscopy across the extended COSMOS and XMM-LSS fields ($\approx$14 deg$^2$) to search for massive protoclusters. We confirm six systems at $z\approx 2.4$ and $z\approx 3.1$, reconstruct their three-dimensional structures, estimate descendant halo masses, and, for one structure at $z\approx 3.12$, demonstrate that overlapping narrowband filters ($NB497$ and $N501$) provide accurate redshift tomography for emission-line galaxies. One protocluster at $z\approx 2.45$ overlaps with one of the LATIS tomographic fields, enabling direct comparison between galaxy and H {\sc i} overdensities traced by Ly$α$ forest absorption. Another at $z\approx 3.12$ hosts a massive quiescent galaxy ($M_{\ast} \approx 1.2 \times 10^{11}M_\odot$), indicating early quenching in a dense environment. By comparing Ly$α$ emission properties across environments, we find that protocluster galaxies exhibit higher median line fluxes and a deficit of faint emitters relative to the field. The effect is strongest when both 2D and 3D density information are combined, indicating that galaxies in the densest protocluster cores are most affected by environmental processes. This effect is stronger at $z\approx3.1$ than at $z\approx2.4$, suggesting possible redshift evolution.

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The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). II. A Catalog of Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster

The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS) is a deep, high resolution imaging campaign that used the 1 deg$^2$ MegaCam instrument on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope to carry out a comprehensive optical survey of the Virgo cluster, from its core to its virial radius. The NGVS covers a contiguous area of 104 deg$^2$ (8.63 Mpc$^2$ at the 16.5 Mpc distance of Virgo) in the $u^*$-,$g$-,$i$-, and $z$-band, with additional limited coverage in $r$. In this paper, we present the final catalog of Virgo galaxies across the entire NGVS area. The catalog includes 3680 galaxies considered to be $bona~fide$ members of the cluster, spanning a factor of 2.5 million in luminosity, from $g = 8.42$ mag to $g = 24.41$ mag ($M_g = -22.67$ mag to $M_g = -6.68$ mag). With 2100 previously uncataloged galaxies, the NGVS catalog augments the number of known Virgo members by a factor 2.3. The catalog is complete down to $g = 18.6$ mag ($M_g=-12.5$ mag, corresponding to a stellar mass $M_* \sim 1.6\times10^7~M_{\odot}$ for an old stellar population) and 50% complete at $g = 22.0$ mag ($M_g=-9.1$ mag, $M_* \sim 6.2\times10^5~M_{\odot}$), three magnitudes deeper than the venerable Virgo Cluster Catalog (VCC), which for over 40 years has served as the reference standard for Virgo. Photometric and structural parameters are derived for all NGVS galaxies and presented in a series of tables, alongside nuclear and morphological classification, as well as stellar masses and, when available, radial velocities.

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Taming Additive Systematics via Redshift-Bin-Optimized Star-Galaxy Separation

Contamination from stars in the galaxy samples of large-scale structure surveys can bias cosmological constraints if not tightly controlled. This is especially true for lens samples used for galaxy clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing probes, where contamination is a primary source of additive systematics. We propose an improved approach to star-galaxy separation and an optimal weighting scheme to jointly mitigate additive and multiplicative contamination of the density field at the map level. Our star-galaxy separation approach exploits the fact that photometric galaxy samples used for cosmological inference populate different regions of color-space than the full photometric dataset on which star-galaxy cuts are typically applied, and therefore optimizes star-galaxy separation for the galaxy samples in each redshift bin. This serves as a complementary approach to morphological star-galaxy separators, which can have complicated dependencies on PSF and blending systematics. We demonstrate the method using the Dark Energy Survey Y3 MagLim lens sample, for which we obtain forced NIR unWISE photometry via cross-matching with DECaLS DR9 to define redshift-bin-optimized color cuts. We identify and remove residual stellar contamination in the DES Y3 lens sample, which varies strongly across redshift bins ($1.3-5.5\%$) and across the footprint.

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Bayesian Component Separation for DESI LAE Automated Spectroscopic Redshifts and Photometric Targeting

Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs) are valuable high-redshift cosmological probes traditionally identified using specialized narrow-band photometric surveys. In ground-based spectroscopy, it can be difficult to distinguish the sharp LAE peak from residual sky emission lines using automated methods, leading to misclassified redshifts. We present a Bayesian spectral component separation technique to automatically determine spectroscopic redshifts for LAEs while marginalizing over sky residuals. We use visually inspected spectra of LAEs obtained using the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) to create a data-driven prior and can determine redshift by jointly inferring sky residual, LAE, and residual components for each individual spectrum. We demonstrate this method on 881 spectroscopically observed $z = 2-4$ DESI LAE candidate spectra and determine their redshifts with $>$90% accuracy when validated against visually inspected redshifts. Using the $Δχ^2$ value from our pipeline as a proxy for detection confidence, we then explore potential survey design choices and implications for targeting LAEs with medium-band photometry. This method allows for scalability and accuracy in determining redshifts from DESI spectra, and the results provide recommendations for LAE targeting in anticipation of future high-redshift spectroscopic surveys.

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Effect of local environment on Ly$α$ line profile in DESI/ODIN LAEs

Lyman-Alpha Emitters (LAEs) are star-forming galaxies with significant Ly$α$ emission and are often used as tracers of large-scale structure at high redshift. We explore the relationship between the Ly$α$ line profile and environmental density with spectroscopy from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) of LAEs selected with narrow-band photometry through the One-hundred-deg$^2$ DECam Imaging in Narrowbands (ODIN) survey. We use LAE surface density maps in the N419 (z $\sim$ 2.45) and N501 (z $\sim$ 3.12) narrow bands to probe the relationship between local environmental density and the Ly$α$ line profile. In both narrow bands, we stack the LAE spectra in bins of environmental density and inside and outside of protocluster regions. The N501 data shows $\sim$15% higher Ly$α$ line luminosity for galaxies in protoclusters, suggesting increased star formation in these regions. However, the line luminosity is not appreciably greater in protocluster galaxies in the N419 band, suggesting a potential redshift evolution of this effect. The shape of the line profile itself does not vary with environmental density, suggesting that line shape changes are caused by local effects independent of a galaxy's environment. These data indicate a potential relationship between LAE local environmental density, ionized gas distribution, and Ly$α$ line luminosity.

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DESI Spectroscopy of HETDEX Emission-line Candidates I: Line Discrimination Validation

The Hobby-Eberly Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) is an untargeted spectroscopic galaxy survey that uses Ly$α$ emitting galaxies (LAEs) as tracers of 1.9 < z < 3.5 large scale structure. Most detections consist of a single emission line, whose identity is inferred via a Bayesian analysis of ancillary data. To determine the accuracy of these line identifications, HETDEX detections were observed with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). In two DESI pointings, high confidence spectroscopic redshifts are obtained for 1157 sources, including 982 LAEs. The DESI spectra are used to evaluate the accuracy of the HETDEX object classifications, and tune the methodology to achieve the HETDEX science requirement of $\lesssim 2\%$ contamination of the LAE sample by low-redshift emission-line galaxies, while still assigning $96\%$ of the true Ly$α$ emission sample with the correct spectroscopic redshift. We compare emission line measurements between the two experiments assuming a simple Gaussian line fitting model. Fitted values for the central wavelength of the emission line, the measured line flux and line widths are consistent between the surveys within uncertainties. Derived spectroscopic redshifts, from the two classification pipelines, when both agree as an LAE classification, are consistent to within $\langle Δz / (1 + z) \rangle = 6.9\times 10^{-5}$ with an rms scatter of $3.3\times 10^{-4}$.

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Stellar reddening map from DESI imaging and spectroscopy

We present new Galactic dust reddening maps of the high Galactic latitude sky using DESI imaging and spectroscopy. We directly measure the reddening of 2.6 million stars by comparing the observed stellar colors in $g-r$ and $r-z$ from DESI imaging with the synthetic colors derived from DESI spectra from the first two years of the survey. The reddening in the two colors is on average consistent with the Fitzpatrick (1999) extinction curve with $R_\mathrm{V}=3.1$. We find that our reddening maps differ significantly from the commonly used Schlegel et al. (1998) (SFD) reddening map (by up to 80 mmag in $E(B-V)$), and we attribute most of this difference to systematic errors in the SFD map. To validate the reddening map, we select a galaxy sample with extinction correction based on our reddening map, and this yields significantly better uniformity than the SFD extinction correction. Finally, we discuss the potential systematic errors in the DESI reddening measurements, including the photometric calibration errors that are the limiting factor on our accuracy. The $E(g-r)$ and $E(r-z)$ maps presented in this work, and for convenience their corresponding $E(B-V)$ maps with SFD calibration, are publicly available.

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The Spectroscopic Stage-5 Experiment

The existence, properties, and dynamics of the dark sectors of our universe pose fundamental challenges to our current model of physics, and large-scale astronomical surveys may be our only hope to unravel these long-standing mysteries. In this white paper, we describe the science motivation, instrumentation, and survey plan for the next-generation spectroscopic observatory, the Stage-5 Spectroscopic Experiment (Spec-S5). Spec-S5 is a new all-sky spectroscopic instrument optimized to efficiently carry out cosmological surveys of unprecedented scale and precision. The baseline plan for Spec-S5 involves upgrading two existing 4-m telescopes to new 6-m wide-field facilities, each with a highly multiplexed spectroscopic instrument capable of simultaneously measuring the spectra of 13,000 astronomical targets. Spec-S5, which builds and improves on the hardware used for previous cosmology experiments, represents a cost-effective and rapid approach to realizing a more than 10$\times$ gain in spectroscopic capability compared to the current state-of-the-art represented by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument project (DESI). Spec-S5 will provide a critical scientific capability in the post-Rubin and post-DESI era for advancing cosmology, fundamental physics, and astrophysics in the 2030s.

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High redshift LBGs from deep broadband imaging for future spectroscopic surveys

Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) are promising probes for clustering measurements at high redshift, $z>2$, a region only covered so far by Lyman-$α$ forest measurements. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of selecting LBGs by exploiting the existence of a strong deficit of flux shortward of the Lyman limit, due to various absorption processes along the line of sight. The target selection relies on deep imaging data from the HSC and CLAUDS surveys in the $g,r,z$ and $u$ bands, respectively, with median depths reaching 27 AB in all bands. The selections were validated by several dedicated spectroscopic observation campaigns with DESI. Visual inspection of spectra has enabled us to develop an automated spectroscopic typing and redshift estimation algorithm specific to LBGs. Based on these data and tools, we assess the efficiency and purity of target selections optimised for different purposes. Selections providing a wide redshift coverage retain $57\%$ of the observed targets after spectroscopic confirmation with DESI, and provide an efficiency for LBGs of $83\pm3\%$, for a purity of the selected LBG sample of $90\pm2\%$. This would deliver a confirmed LBG density of $\sim 620$ deg$^{-2}$ in the range $2.3<z<3.5$ for a $r$-band limiting magnitude $r<24.2$. Selections optimised for high redshift efficiency retain $73\%$ of the observed targets after spectroscopic confirmation, with $89\pm4\%$ efficiency for $97\pm2\%$ purity. This would provide a confirmed LBG density of $\sim 470$ deg$^{-2}$ in the range $2.8<z<3.5$ for a $r$-band limiting magnitude $r<24.5$. A preliminary study of the LBG sample 3d-clustering properties is also presented and used to estimate the LBG linear bias. A value of $b_{LBG} = 3.3 \pm 0.2 (stat.)$ is obtained for a mean redshift of 2.9 and a limiting magnitude in $r$ of 24.2, in agreement with results reported in the literature.

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The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Cosmological Implications from two Decades of Spectroscopic Surveys at the Apache Point observatory

We present the cosmological implications from final measurements of clustering using galaxies, quasars, and Ly$α$ forests from the completed Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) lineage of experiments in large-scale structure. These experiments, composed of data from SDSS, SDSS-II, BOSS, and eBOSS, offer independent measurements of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements of angular-diameter distances and Hubble distances relative to the sound horizon, $r_d$, from eight different samples and six measurements of the growth rate parameter, $fσ_8$, from redshift-space distortions (RSD). This composite sample is the most constraining of its kind and allows us to perform a comprehensive assessment of the cosmological model after two decades of dedicated spectroscopic observation. We show that the BAO data alone are able to rule out dark-energy-free models at more than eight standard deviations in an extension to the flat, $Λ$CDM model that allows for curvature. When combined with Planck Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurements of temperature and polarization the BAO data provide nearly an order of magnitude improvement on curvature constraints. The RSD measurements indicate a growth rate that is consistent with predictions from Planck primary data and with General Relativity. When combining the results of SDSS BAO and RSD with external data, all multiple-parameter extensions remain consistent with a $Λ$CDM model. Regardless of cosmological model, the precision on $Ω_Λ$, $H_0$, and $σ_8$, remains at roughly 1\%, showing changes of less than 0.6\% in the central values between models. The inverse distance ladder measurement under a o$w_0w_a$CDM yields $H_0= 68.20 \pm 0.81 \, \rm km\, s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}$, remaining in tension with several direct determination methods. (abridged)

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The DESI One-Percent Survey: Exploring A Generalized SHAM for Multiple Tracers with the UNIT Simulation

We perform SubHalo Abundance Matching (SHAM) studies on UNIT simulations with \{$σ, V_{\rm ceil}, v_{\rm smear}$\}-SHAM and \{$σ, V_{\rm ceil},f_{\rm sat}$\}-SHAM. They are designed to reproduce the clustering on 5--30$\,\hmpc$ of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs), Emission Line Galaxies (ELGs) and Quasi-Stellar Objects (QSOs) at $0.4<z<3.5$ from DESI One Percent Survey. $V_{\rm ceil}$ is the incompleteness of the massive host (sub)haloes and is the key to the generalized SHAM. $v_{\rm smear}$ models the clustering effect of redshift uncertainties, providing measurments consistent with those from repeat observations. A free satellite fraction $f_{\rm sat}$ is necessary to reproduce the clustering of ELGs. We find ELGs present a more complex galaxy--halo mass relation than LRGs reflected in their weak constraints on $σ$. LRGs, QSOs and ELGs show increasing $V_{\rm ceil}$ values, corresponding to the massive galaxy incompleteness of LRGs, the quenched star formation of ELGs and the quenched black hole accretion of QSOs. For LRGs, a Gaussian $v_{\rm smear}$ presents a better profile for sub-samples at redshift bins than a Lorentzian profile used for other tracers. The impact of the statistical redshift uncertainty on ELG clustering is negligible. The best-fitting satellite fraction for DESI ELGs is around 4 per cent, lower than previous estimations for ELGs. The mean halo mass log$_{10}(\langle M_{\rm vir}\rangle)$ in $\Msun{}$ for LRGs, ELGs and QSOs are ${13.16\pm0.01}$, ${11.90\pm0.06}$ and ${12.66\pm0.45}$ respectively. Our generalized SHAM algorithms facilitate the production of mult-tracer galaxy mocks for cosmological tests.

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First Detection of the BAO Signal from Early DESI Data

We present the first detection of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) signal obtained using unblinded data collected during the initial two months of operations of the Stage-IV ground-based Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). From a selected sample of 261,291 Luminous Red Galaxies spanning the redshift interval 0.4 < z < 1.1 and covering 1651 square degrees with a 57.9% completeness level, we report a ~5 sigma level BAO detection and the measurement of the BAO location at a precision of 1.7%. Using a Bright Galaxy Sample of 109,523 galaxies in the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.5, over 3677 square degrees with a 50.0% completeness, we also detect the BAO feature at ~3 sigma significance with a 2.6% precision. These first BAO measurements represent an important milestone, acting as a quality control on the optimal performance of the complex robotically-actuated, fiber-fed DESI spectrograph, as well as an early validation of the DESI spectroscopic pipeline and data management system. Based on these first promising results, we forecast that DESI is on target to achieve a high-significance BAO detection at sub-percent precision with the completed 5-year survey data, meeting the top-level science requirements on BAO measurements. This exquisite level of precision will set new standards in cosmology and confirm DESI as the most competitive BAO experiment for the remainder of this decade.

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NANCY: Next-generation All-sky Near-infrared Community surveY

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is capable of delivering an unprecedented all-sky, high-spatial resolution, multi-epoch infrared map to the astronomical community. This opportunity arises in the midst of numerous ground- and space-based surveys that will provide extensive spectroscopy and imaging together covering the entire sky (such as Rubin/LSST, Euclid, UNIONS, SPHEREx, DESI, SDSS-V, GALAH, 4MOST, WEAVE, MOONS, PFS, UVEX, NEO Surveyor, etc.). Roman can uniquely provide uniform high-spatial-resolution (~0.1 arcsec) imaging over the entire sky, vastly expanding the science reach and precision of all of these near-term and future surveys. This imaging will not only enhance other surveys, but also facilitate completely new science. By imaging the full sky over two epochs, Roman can measure the proper motions for stars across the entire Milky Way, probing 100 times fainter than Gaia out to the very edge of the Galaxy. Here, we propose NANCY: a completely public, all-sky survey that will create a high-value legacy dataset benefiting innumerable ongoing and forthcoming studies of the universe. NANCY is a pure expression of Roman's potential: it images the entire sky, at high spatial resolution, in a broad infrared bandpass that collects as many photons as possible. The majority of all ongoing astronomical surveys would benefit from incorporating observations of NANCY into their analyses, whether these surveys focus on nearby stars, the Milky Way, near-field cosmology, or the broader universe.

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Overview of the DESI Milky Way Survey

We describe the Milky Way Survey (MWS) that will be undertaken with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) on the Mayall 4m telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. Over the next 5 yr DESI MWS will observe approximately seven million stars at Galactic latitudes |b|>20 degrees, with an inclusive target selection scheme focused on the thick disk and stellar halo. MWS will also include several high-completeness samples of rare stellar types, including white dwarfs, low-mass stars within 100pc of the Sun, and horizontal branch stars. We summarize the potential of DESI to advance understanding of Galactic structure and stellar evolution. We introduce the final definitions of the main MWS target classes and estimate the number of stars in each class that will be observed. We describe our pipelines for deriving radial velocities, atmospheric parameters, and chemical abundances. We use ~500,000 spectra of unique stellar targets from the DESI Survey Validation program (SV) to demonstrate that our pipelines can measure radial velocities to ~1 km/s and [Fe/H] accurate to ~0.2 dex for typical stars in our main sample. We find the stellar parameter distributions from ~100 sq. deg of SV observations with >90% completeness on our main sample are in good agreement with expectations from mock catalogs and previous surveys.

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Abundance matching analysis of the emission line galaxy sample in the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

We present the measurements of the small-scale clustering for the emission line galaxy (ELG) sample from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV). We use conditional abundance matching method to interpret the clustering measurements from $0.34h^{-1}\textrm{Mpc}$ to $70h^{-1}\textrm{Mpc}$. In order to account for the correlation between properties of emission line galaxies and their environment, we add a secondary connection between star formation rate of ELGs and halo accretion rate. Three parameters are introduced to model the ELG [OII] luminosity and to mimic the target selection of eBOSS ELGs. The parameters in our models are optimized using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. We find that by conditionally matching star formation rate of galaxies and the halo accretion rate, we are able to reproduce the eBOSS ELG small scale clustering within 1$σ$ error level. Our best fit model shows that the eBOSS ELG sample only consists of $\sim 12\%$ of all star-forming galaxies, and the satellite fraction of eBOSS ELG sample is 19.3\%. We show that the effect of assembly bias is $\sim20\%$ on the two-point correlation function and $\sim5\%$ on the void probability function at scale of $r\sim 20 h^{-1}\rm Mpc$.

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The Target-selection Pipeline for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument

In 2021 May, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) began a 5 yr survey of approximately 50 million total extragalactic and Galactic targets. The primary DESI dark-time targets are emission line galaxies (ELGs), luminous red galaxies (LRGs) and quasars (QSOs). In bright time, DESI will focus on two surveys known as the Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) and the Milky Way Survey (MWS). DESI also observes a selection of "secondary" targets for bespoke science goals. This paper gives an overview of the publicly available pipeline (desitarget) used to process targets for DESI observations. Highlights include details of the different DESI survey targeting phases, the targeting ID (TARGETID) used to define unique targets, the bitmasks used to indicate a particular type of target, the data model and structure of DESI targeting files, and examples of how to access and use the desitarget code base. This paper will also describe "supporting" DESI target classes, such as standard stars, sky locations, and random catalogs that mimic the angular selection function of DESI targets. The DESI target selection pipeline is complex and sizable; this paper attempts to summarize the most salient information required to understand and work with DESI targeting data.

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The MegaMapper: A Stage-5 Spectroscopic Instrument Concept for the Study of Inflation and Dark Energy

In this white paper, we present the MegaMapper concept. The MegaMapper is a proposed ground-based experiment to measure Inflation parameters and Dark Energy from galaxy redshifts at $2<z<5$. In order to achieve path-breaking results with a mid-scale investment, the MegaMapper combines existing technologies for critical path elements and pushes innovative development in other design areas. To this aim, we envision a 6.5-m Magellan-like telescope, with a newly designed wide field, coupled with DESI spectrographs, and small-pitch robots to achieve multiplexing of at least 26,000. This will match the expected achievable target density in the redshift range of interest and provide a 10x capability over the existing state-of the art, without a 10x increase in project budget.

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A Spectroscopic Road Map for Cosmic Frontier: DESI, DESI-II, Stage-5

In this white paper, we present an experimental road map for spectroscopic experiments beyond DESI. DESI will be a transformative cosmological survey in the 2020s, mapping 40 million galaxies and quasars and capturing a significant fraction of the available linear modes up to z=1.2. DESI-II will pilot observations of galaxies both at much higher densities and extending to higher redshifts. A Stage-5 experiment would build out those high-density and high-redshift observations, mapping hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies in three dimensions, to address the problems of inflation, dark energy, light relativistic species, and dark matter. These spectroscopic data will also complement the next generation of weak lensing, line intensity mapping and CMB experiments and allow them to reach their full potential.

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