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D. Bianchi

Publications and source records attributed to D. Bianchi.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

Extended Dark Energy analysis using DESI DR2 BAO measurements

We conduct an extended analysis of dark energy constraints, in support of the findings of the DESI DR2 cosmology key paper, including DESI data, Planck CMB observations, and three different supernova compilations. Using a broad range of parametric and non-parametric methods, we explore the dark energy phenomenology and find consistent trends across all approaches, in good agreement with the $w_0w_a$CDM key paper results. Even with the additional flexibility introduced by non-parametric approaches, such as binning and Gaussian Processes, we find that extending $Λ$CDM to include a two-parameter $w(z)$ is sufficient to capture the trends present in the data. Finally, we examine three dark energy classes with distinct dynamics, including quintessence scenarios satisfying $w \geq -1$, to explore what underlying physics can explain such deviations. The current data indicate a clear preference for models that feature a phantom crossing; although alternatives lacking this feature are disfavored, they cannot yet be ruled out. Our analysis confirms that the evidence for dynamical dark energy, particularly at low redshift ($z \lesssim 0.3$), is robust and stable under different modeling choices.

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Early time solution as an alternative to the late time evolving dark energy with DESI DR2 BAO

Recently the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) provided constraints on the expansion history from their Data Release 2 (DR2). The DESI baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements are well described by a flat $Λ$CDM model, but the preferred parameters are in mild ($2.3σ$) tension with those determined from the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The DESI collaboration has already explored a variety of solutions to this tension relying on variations in the late-time evolution of dark energy. Here we test an alternative -- the introduction of an ``early dark energy'' (EDE) component. We find that EDE models can alleviate the tension, though they lead to differences in other cosmological parameters that have observational implications. Particularly the EDE models that fit the acoustic datasets prefer lower $Ω_m$, higher $H_0$, $n_s$ and $σ_8$ in contrast to the late-time solutions. We discuss the current status and near-future prospects for distinguishing amongst these solutions.

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Validation of the DESI DR2 Measurements of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Galaxies and Quasars

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) data release 2 (DR2) galaxy and quasar clustering data represents a significant expansion of data from DR1, providing improved statistical precision in BAO constraints across multiple tracers, including bright galaxies (BGS), luminous red galaxies (LRGs), emission line galaxies (ELGs), and quasars (QSOs). In this paper, we validate the BAO analysis of DR2. We present the results of robustness tests on the blinded DR2 data and, after unblinding, consistency checks on the unblinded DR2 data. All results are compared to those obtained from a suite of mock catalogs that replicate the selection and clustering properties of the DR2 sample. We confirm the consistency of DR2 BAO measurements with DR1 while achieving a reduction in statistical uncertainties due to the increased survey volume and completeness. We assess the impact of analysis choices, including different data vectors (correlation function vs. power spectrum), modeling approaches and systematics treatments, and an assumption of the Gaussian likelihood, finding that our BAO constraints are stable across these variations and assumptions with a few minor refinements to the baseline setup of the DR1 BAO analysis. We summarize a series of pre-unblinding tests that confirmed the readiness of our analysis pipeline, the final systematic errors, and the DR2 BAO analysis baseline. The successful completion of these tests led to the unblinding of the DR2 BAO measurements, ultimately leading to the DESI DR2 cosmological analysis, with their implications for the expansion history of the Universe and the nature of dark energy presented in the DESI key paper.

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Validation of the DESI DR2 Ly$α$ BAO analysis using synthetic datasets

The second data release (DR2) of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), containing data from the first three years of observations, doubles the number of Lyman-$α$ (Ly$α$) forest spectra in DR1 and it provides the largest dataset of its kind. To ensure a robust validation of the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) analysis using Ly$α$ forests, we have made significant updates compared to DR1 to both the mocks and the analysis framework used in the validation. In particular, we present CoLoRe-QL, a new set of Ly$α$ mocks that use a quasi-linear input power spectrum to incorporate the non-linear broadening of the BAO peak. We have also increased the number of realisations used in the validation to 400, compared to the 150 realisations used in DR1. Finally, we present a detailed study of the impact of quasar redshift errors on the BAO measurement, and we compare different strategies to mask Damped Lyman-$α$ Absorbers (DLAs) in our spectra. The BAO measurement from the Ly$α$ dataset of DESI DR2 is presented in a companion publication.

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The DESI-Lensing Mock Challenge: large-scale cosmological analysis of 3x2-pt statistics

The current generation of large galaxy surveys will test the cosmological model by combining multiple types of observational probes. Realising the statistical promise of these new datasets requires rigorous attention to all aspects of analysis including cosmological measurements, modelling, covariance and parameter likelihood. In this paper we present the results of an end-to-end simulation study designed to test the analysis pipeline for the combination of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Year 1 galaxy redshift dataset and separate weak gravitational lensing information from the Kilo-Degree Survey, Dark Energy Survey and Hyper-Suprime-Cam Survey. Our analysis employs the 3x2-pt correlation functions including cosmic shear and galaxy-galaxy lensing, together with the projected correlation function of the spectroscopic DESI lenses. We build realistic simulations of these datasets including galaxy halo occupation distributions, photometric redshift errors, weights, multiplicative shear calibration biases and magnification. We calculate the analytical covariance of these correlation functions including the Gaussian, noise and super-sample contributions, and show that our covariance determination agrees with estimates based on the ensemble of simulations. We use a Bayesian inference platform to demonstrate that we can recover the fiducial cosmological parameters of the simulation within the statistical error margin of the experiment, investigating the sensitivity to scale cuts. This study is the first in a sequence of papers in which we present and validate the large-scale 3x2-pt cosmological analysis of DESI-Y1.

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Tripling the Census of Dwarf AGN Candidates Using DESI Early Data

Using early data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey, we search for AGN signatures in 410,757 line-emitting galaxies. By employing the BPT emission-line ratio diagnostic diagram, we identify AGN in 75,928/296,261 ($\approx$25.6%) high-mass ($\log (M_{\star}/\rm M_{\odot}) >$ 9.5) and 2,444/114,496 ($\approx$2.1%) dwarf ($\log (M_{\star}/\rm M_{\odot}) \leq$ 9.5) galaxies. Of these AGN candidates, 4,181 sources exhibit a broad H$α$ component, allowing us to estimate their BH masses via virial techniques. This study more than triples the census of dwarf AGN and doubles the number of intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH; $M_{BH} \le 10^6~\rm M_{\odot}$) candidates, spanning a broad discovery space in stellar mass (7 $< \log (M_{\star}/M_{\odot}) <$ 12) and redshift (0.001 $< \rm z <$ 0.45). The observed AGN fraction in dwarf galaxies ($\approx$2.1%) is nearly four times higher than prior estimates, primarily due to DESI's smaller fiber size, which enables the detection of lower luminosity dwarf AGN candidates. We also extend the $M_{BH} - M_{\star}$ scaling relation down to $\log (M_{\star}/M_{\odot}) \approx$ 8.5 and $\log (M_{BH}/\rm M_{\odot}) \approx$ 4.4, with our results aligning well with previous low-redshift studies. The large statistical sample of dwarf AGN candidates from current and future DESI releases will be invaluable for enhancing our understanding of galaxy evolution at the low-mass end of the galaxy mass function.

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Measuring the Mean Free Path of HI Ionizing Photons at $3.2\leq z\leq4.6$ with DESI Y1 Quasars

The mean free path of ionizing photons ($λ_\mathrm{mfp}^{912}$) in the intergalactic medium (IGM) is a crucial quantity in modelling the ionization state of IGM and the extragalactic ultraviolet background (EUVB), and is widely used in hydrodynamical simulations of galaxies and reionization. We construct the largest quasar spectrum dataset to date -- 12,595 $\mathrm{S/N}>3$ spectra -- using the Y1 observation of Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) to make the most precise model-independent measurement of the mean free path at $3.2\leq z\leq 4.6$. By stacking the spectra in 17 redshift bins and modelling the Lyman continuum profile, we get a redshift evolution $λ_\mathrm{mfp}^{912}\propto(1+z)^{-4.27}$ at $2\leq z\leq 5$, which is much shallower than previous estimate $λ_\mathrm{mfp}^{912}\propto(1+z)^{-5.4}$. We then explore the sources of systematic bias, including the choice of intrinsic quasar continuum, the consideration of Lyman series opacity and Lyman limit opacity evolution and the definition of $λ_\mathrm{mfp}^{912}$. Combining our results with estimates of $λ_\mathrm{mfp}^{912}$ at higher redshifts, we conclude at high confidence that the evolution in $λ_\mathrm{mfp}^{912}$ steepens at $z \approx 5$. We interpret this inflection as the transition from the end of HI reionization to a fully ionized plasma which characterizes the intergalactic medium of the past $\sim10$ billion years.

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DESI Strong Lens Foundry I: HST Observations and Modeling with GIGA-Lens

We present the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Strong Lens Foundry. We discovered $\sim 3500$ new strong gravitational lens candidates in the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys using residual neural networks (ResNet). We observed a subset (51) of our candidates using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). All of them were confirmed to be strong lenses. We also briefly describe spectroscopic follow-up observations by DESI and Keck NIRES programs. From this very rich dataset, a number of studies will be carried out, including evaluating the quality of the ResNet search candidates and lens modeling. In this paper, we present our initial effort in these directions. In particular, as a demonstration, we present the lens model for DESI-165.4754-06.0423, with imaging data from HST, and lens and source redshifts from DESI and Keck NIRES, respectively. In this effort, we have applied a \emph{fully} forward-modeling Bayesian approach (GIGA-Lens), using \emph{multiple} GPUs, for the first time in both regards, to a strong lens with HST data, or any high resolution imaging.

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Mitigation of DESI fiber assignment incompleteness effect on two-point clustering with small angular scale truncated estimators

We present a method to mitigate the effects of fiber assignment incompleteness in two-point power spectrum and correlation function measurements from galaxy spectroscopic surveys, by truncating small angular scales from estimators. We derive the corresponding modified correlation function and power spectrum windows to account for the small angular scale truncation in the theory prediction. We validate this approach on simulations reproducing the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Data Release 1 (DR1) with and without fiber assignment. We show that we recover unbiased cosmological constraints using small angular scale truncated estimators from simulations with fiber assignment incompleteness, with respect to standard estimators from complete simulations. Additionally, we present an approach to remove the sensitivity of the fits to high $k$ modes in the theoretical power spectrum, by applying a transformation to the data vector and window matrix. We find that our method efficiently mitigates the effect of fiber assignment incompleteness in two-point correlation function and power spectrum measurements, at low computational cost and with little statistical loss.

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Mitigating Imaging Systematics for DESI 2024 Emission Line Galaxies and Beyond

Emission Line Galaxies (ELGs) are one of the main tracers that the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) uses to probe the universe. However, they are afflicted by strong spurious correlations between target density and observing conditions known as imaging systematics. We present the imaging systematics mitigation applied to the DESI Data Release 1 (DR1) large-scale structure catalogs used in the DESI 2024 cosmological analyses. We also explore extensions of the fiducial treatment. This includes a combined approach, through forward image simulations in conjunction with neural network-based regression, to obtain an angular selection function that mitigates the imaging systematics observed in the DESI DR1 ELGs target density. We further derive a line-of-sight selection function from the forward model that removes the strong redshift dependence between imaging systematics and low redshift ELGs. Combining both angular and redshift-dependent systematics, we construct a 3D selection function and assess the impact of all selection functions on clustering statistics. We quantify differences between these extended treatments and the fiducial treatment in terms of the measured 2-point statistics. We find that the results are generally consistent with the fiducial treatment and conclude that the differences are far less than the imaging systematics uncertainty included in DESI 2024 full-shape measurements. We extend our investigation to the ELGs at $0.6<z<0.8$, i.e., beyond the redshift range ($0.8<z<1.6$) adopted for the DESI clustering catalog, and demonstrate that determining the full 3D selection function is necessary in this redshift range. Our tests showed that all changes are consistent with statistical noise for BAO analyses indicating they are robust to even severe imaging systematics. Specific tests for the full-shape analysis will be presented in a companion paper.

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ForestFlow: predicting the Lyman-$α$ forest clustering from linear to nonlinear scales

On large scales, the Lyman-$α$ forest provides insights into the expansion history of the Universe, while on small scales, it imposes strict constraints on the growth history, the nature of dark matter, and the sum of neutrino masses. This work introduces ForestFlow, a novel framework that bridges the gap between large- and small-scale analyses, which have traditionally relied on distinct modeling approaches. Using conditional normalizing flows, ForestFlow predicts the two Lyman-$α$ linear biases ($b_δ$ and $b_η$) and six parameters describing small-scale deviations of the three-dimensional flux power spectrum ($P_\mathrm{3D}$) from linear theory as a function of cosmology and intergalactic medium physics. These are then combined with a Boltzmann solver to make consistent predictions, from arbitrarily large scales down to the nonlinear regime, for $P_\mathrm{3D}$ and any other statistics derived from it. Trained on a suite of 30 fixed-and-paired cosmological hydrodynamical simulations spanning redshifts from $z=2$ to 4.5, ForestFlow achieves 3 and 1.5\% precision in describing $P_\mathrm{3D}$ and the one-dimensional flux power spectrum ($P_\mathrm{1D}$) from linear scales to $k=5\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ and $k_\parallel=4\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$, respectively. Thanks to its conditional parameterization, ForestFlow shows similar performance for ionization histories and two $Λ$CDM model extensions $\unicode{x2013}$ massive neutrinos and curvature $\unicode{x2013}$ even though none of these are included in the training set. This framework will enable full-scale cosmological analyses of Lyman-$α$ forest measurements from the DESI survey.

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The imprint of cosmic voids from the DESI Legacy Survey DR9 LRGs in the Planck 2018 lensing map through spectroscopically calibrated mocks

The cross-correlation of cosmic voids with the lensing convergence ($κ$) map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) fluctuations provides a powerful tool to refine our understanding of the cosmological model. However, several studies have reported a moderate tension between the lensing imprint of cosmic voids on the observed CMB and the simulated $\mathrmΛ$CDM signal. To address this "lensing-is-low" tension and to obtain new, precise measurements, we exploit the large DESI Legacy Survey Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) dataset, covering approximately 19,500 $°^2$ of the sky and including about 10 million LRGs at $z < 1.05$. Our $\mathrmΛ$CDM template was created using the Buzzard mocks, which we specifically calibrated to match the clustering properties of the observed galaxy sample by exploiting more than one million DESI spectra. We identified our catalogs of 3D voids in the range $0.35 < z < 0.95$, dividing the sample into bins according to the redshift and $λ_\mathrm{v}$ values of the voids. We report a 14$σ$ detection of the lensing signal, with $A_κ= 1.016 \pm 0.054$, which increases to 17$σ$ when considering the void-in-void ($A_κ= 0.944 \pm 0.064$) and the void-in-cloud ($A_κ= 0.975 \pm 0.060$) populations individually, the highest detection significance for studies of this kind. We observe a full agreement between the observations and $\mathrmΛ$CDM predictions across all redshift bins, sky regions, and void populations considered. In addition to these findings, our analysis highlights the importance of matching sparseness and redshift error distributions between mocks and observations, as well as the role of $λ_\mathrm{v}$ in enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio.

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DESI 2024 VII: Cosmological Constraints from the Full-Shape Modeling of Clustering Measurements

We present cosmological results from the measurement of clustering of galaxy, quasar and Lyman-$α$ forest tracers from the first year of observations with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI Data Release 1). We adopt the full-shape (FS) modeling of the power spectrum, including the effects of redshift-space distortions, in an analysis which has been validated in a series of supporting papers. In the flat $Λ$CDM cosmological model, DESI (FS+BAO), combined with a baryon density prior from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and a weak prior on the scalar spectral index, determines matter density to $Ω_\mathrm{m}=0.2962\pm 0.0095$, and the amplitude of mass fluctuations to $σ_8=0.842\pm 0.034$. The addition of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data tightens these constraints to $Ω_\mathrm{m}=0.3056\pm 0.0049$ and $σ_8=0.8121\pm 0.0053$, while further addition of the the joint clustering and lensing analysis from the Dark Energy Survey Year-3 (DESY3) data leads to a 0.4% determination of the Hubble constant, $H_0 = (68.40\pm 0.27)\,{\rm km\,s^{-1}\,Mpc^{-1}}$. In models with a time-varying dark energy equation of state, combinations of DESI (FS+BAO) with CMB and type Ia supernovae continue to show the preference, previously found in the DESI DR1 BAO analysis, for $w_0>-1$ and $w_a<0$ with similar levels of significance. DESI data, in combination with the CMB, impose the upper limits on the sum of the neutrino masses of $\sum m_ν< 0.071\,{\rm eV}$ at 95% confidence. DESI data alone measure the modified-gravity parameter that controls the clustering of massive particles, $μ_0=0.11^{+0.45}_{-0.54}$, while the combination of DESI with the CMB and the clustering and lensing analysis from DESY3 constrains both modified-gravity parameters, giving $μ_0 = 0.04\pm 0.22$ and $Σ_0 = 0.044\pm 0.047$, in agreement with general relativity. [Abridged.]

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DESI 2024 II: Sample Definitions, Characteristics, and Two-point Clustering Statistics

We present the samples of galaxies and quasars used for DESI 2024 cosmological analyses, drawn from the DESI Data Release 1 (DR1). We describe the construction of large-scale structure (LSS) catalogs from these samples, which include matched sets of synthetic reference `randoms' and weights that account for variations in the observed density of the samples due to experimental design and varying instrument performance. We detail how we correct for variations in observational completeness, the input `target' densities due to imaging systematics, and the ability to confidently measure redshifts from DESI spectra. We then summarize how remaining uncertainties in the corrections can be translated to systematic uncertainties for particular analyses. We describe the weights added to maximize the signal-to-noise of DESI DR1 2-point clustering measurements. We detail measurement pipelines applied to the LSS catalogs that obtain 2-point clustering measurements in configuration and Fourier space. The resulting 2-point measurements depend on window functions and normalization constraints particular to each sample, and we present the corrections required to match models to the data. We compare the configuration- and Fourier-space 2-point clustering of the data samples to that recovered from simulations of DESI DR1 and find they are, generally, in statistical agreement to within 2\% in the inferred real-space over-density field. The LSS catalogs, 2-point measurements, and their covariance matrices will be released publicly with DESI DR1.

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DESI 2024 VI: Cosmological Constraints from the Measurements of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations

We present cosmological results from the measurement of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in galaxy, quasar and Lyman-$α$ forest tracers from the first year of observations from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), to be released in the DESI Data Release 1. DESI BAO provide robust measurements of the transverse comoving distance and Hubble rate, or their combination, relative to the sound horizon, in seven redshift bins from over 6 million extragalactic objects in the redshift range $0.1 -1$ and $w_a<0$. This preference is 2.6$σ$ for the DESI+CMB combination, and persists or grows when SN~Ia are added in, giving results discrepant with the $Λ$CDM model at the $2.5σ$, $3.5σ$ or $3.9σ$ levels for the addition of Pantheon+, Union3, or DES-SN5YR datasets respectively. For the flat $Λ$CDM model with the sum of neutrino mass $\sum m_ν$ free, combining the DESI and CMB data yields an upper limit $\sum m_ν< 0.072$ $(0.113)$ eV at 95% confidence for a $\sum m_ν>0$ $(\sum m_ν>0.059)$ eV prior. These neutrino-mass constraints are substantially relaxed in models beyond $Λ$CDM. [Abridged.]

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The Early Data Release of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) completed its five-month Survey Validation in May 2021. Spectra of stellar and extragalactic targets from Survey Validation constitute the first major data sample from the DESI survey. This paper describes the public release of those spectra, the catalogs of derived properties, and the intermediate data products. In total, the public release includes good-quality spectral information from 466,447 objects targeted as part of the Milky Way Survey, 428,758 as part of the Bright Galaxy Survey, 227,318 as part of the Luminous Red Galaxy sample, 437,664 as part of the Emission Line Galaxy sample, and 76,079 as part of the Quasar sample. In addition, the release includes spectral information from 137,148 objects that expand the scope beyond the primary samples as part of a series of secondary programs. Here, we describe the spectral data, data quality, data products, Large-Scale Structure science catalogs, access to the data, and references that provide relevant background to using these spectra.

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DESI Emission Line Galaxies: Unveiling the Diversity of [OII] Profiles and its Links to Star Formation and Morphology

We study the [OII] profiles of emission line galaxies (ELGs) from the Early Data Release of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). To this end, we decompose and classify the shape of [OII] profiles with the first two eigenspectra derived from Principal Component Analysis. Our results show that DESI ELGs have diverse line profiles which can be categorized into three main types: (1) narrow lines with a median width of ~50 km/s, (2) broad lines with a median width of ~80 km/s, and (3) two-redshift systems with a median velocity separation of ~150 km/s, i.e., double-peak galaxies. To investigate the connections between the line profiles and galaxy properties, we utilize the information from the COSMOS dataset and compare the properties of ELGs, including star-formation rate (SFR) and galaxy morphology, with the average properties of reference star-forming galaxies with similar stellar mass, sizes, and redshifts. Our findings show that on average, DESI ELGs have higher SFR and more asymmetrical/disturbed morphology than the reference galaxies. Moreover, we uncover a relationship between the line profiles, the excess SFR and the excess asymmetry parameter, showing that DESI ELGs with broader [OII] line profiles have more disturbed morphology and higher SFR than the reference star-forming galaxies. Finally, we discuss possible physical mechanisms giving rise to the observed relationship and the implications of our findings on the galaxy clustering measurements, including the halo occupation distribution modeling of DESI ELGs and the observed excess velocity dispersion of the satellite ELGs.

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DESI 2024 IV: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from the Lyman Alpha Forest

We present the measurement of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) from the Lyman-$α$ (Ly$α$) forest of high-redshift quasars with the first-year dataset of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Our analysis uses over $420\,000$ Ly$α$ forest spectra and their correlation with the spatial distribution of more than $700\,000$ quasars. An essential facet of this work is the development of a new analysis methodology on a blinded dataset. We conducted rigorous tests using synthetic data to ensure the reliability of our methodology and findings before unblinding. Additionally, we conducted multiple data splits to assess the consistency of the results and scrutinized various analysis approaches to confirm their robustness. For a given value of the sound horizon ($r_d$), we measure the expansion at $z_{\rm eff}=2.33$ with 2\% precision, $H(z_{\rm eff}) = (239.2 \pm 4.8) (147.09~{\rm Mpc} /r_d)$ km/s/Mpc. Similarly, we present a 2.4\% measurement of the transverse comoving distance to the same redshift, $D_M(z_{\rm eff}) = (5.84 \pm 0.14) (r_d/147.09~{\rm Mpc})$ Gpc. Together with other DESI BAO measurements at lower redshifts, these results are used in a companion paper to constrain cosmological parameters.

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