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David Bacon

Publications and source records attributed to David Bacon.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Brightest Cluster Galaxy ellipticity as proxy for halo shape: Orientation bias, assembly bias, and potential selection effects in SZ-selected clusters

The orientation of triaxial galaxy clusters with respect to the line-of-sight is expected to be one of the prime sources of scatter and potential bias in optical observables (e.g., richness and weak-lensing signal) of galaxy clusters. In this work, we use the observed shape of the central Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG) as proxy for the orientation along the line-of-sight for clusters selected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) surveys, matched to optically selected clusters from the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 (DES). We construct two samples of clusters that are designed to be identical in SZ mass estimate and redshift but with the roundest vs. the most elliptical BCGs, which we expect to correspond to BCGs (and clusters) with major axes aligned along the line-of-sight vs. in the plane of the sky, respectively. We find that the optical richness of round-BCG clusters is $\sim 10$\% larger than that of elliptical-BCG clusters, in agreement with the expectation from projection effects and presenting the first such detection in data. The density profiles, however, are not in agreement with the expectation from projection effects: the 1-halo term (below $6~h^{-1}\rm{Mpc}$) of both the weak-lensing and galaxy density profiles are the same for the subsamples, contrary to previous studies based on X-ray selected clusters. In the 2-halo regime (above $6~h^{-1}\rm{Mpc}$), we find a significant excess of the elliptical-BCG cluster profiles compared to the round-BCG cluster profiles, which is the opposite of the expectation from numerical simulations. We hypothesize that the intrinsic shape of the BCG reflects not just the orientation angle, but also intrinsic properties of the cluster which can affect both the SZ signal and the amplitude of the 2-halo term.

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Cosmology from LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Data Release 2: Cross-correlations with luminous red galaxies from eBOSS

We cross-correlated galaxies from the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR) Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) second data release (DR2) radio source with the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample to extract the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) signal and constrain the linear clustering bias of radio sources in LoTSS DR2. In the LoTSS DR2 catalogue, employing a flux density limit of $1.5$ mJy at the central LoTSS frequency of 144 MHz and a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of $7.5$, additionally considering eBOSS LRGs with redshifts between 0.6 and 1, we measured both the angular LoTSS-eBOSS cross-power spectrum and the angular eBOSS auto-power spectrum. These measurements were performed across various eBOSS redshift tomographic bins with a width of $\Delta z=0.06$. By marginalising over the broadband shape of the angular power spectra, we searched for a BAO signal in cross-correlation with radio galaxies, and determine the linear clustering bias of LoTSS radio sources for a constant-bias and an evolving-bias model. Using the cross-correlation, we measured the isotropic BAO dilation parameter as $\alpha=1.01\pm 0.11$ at $z_{\rm eff}=0.63$. By combining four redshift slices at $z_{\rm eff}=0.63, 0.69, 0.75$, and $0.81$, we determined a more constrained value of $\alpha = 0.968^{+0.060}_{-0.095}$. For the entire redshift range of $z_{\rm eff}=0.715$, we measured $b_C = 2.64 \pm 0.20$ for the constant-bias model, $b(z)=b_C$, and then $b_D = 1.80 \pm 0.13$ for the evolving-bias model, $b(z) = b_D / D(z)$, with $D(z)$ denoting the growth rate of linear structures. Additionally, we measured the clustering bias for individual redshift bins.

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The feasibility of weak lensing and 21cm intensity mapping cross-correlation measurements

One of the most promising probes to complement current standard cosmological surveys is the HI intensity map, i.e. the distribution of temperature fluctuations in neutral hydrogen. In this paper we present calculations of the 2-point function between HI (at redshift $z$ < 1) and lensing convergence ($\kappa$). We also construct HI intensity maps from N-body simulations, and measure 2-point functions between HI and lensing convergence. HI intensity mapping requires stringent removal of bright foregrounds, including emission from our galaxy. The removal of large-scale radial modes during this HI foreground removal will reduce the HI-lensing cross-power spectrum signal, as radial modes are integrated to find the convergence; here we wish to characterise this reduction in signal. We find that after a simple model of foreground removal, the cross-correlation signal is reduced by $\sim$50-70\%; we present the angular and redshift dependence of the effect, which is a weak function of these variables. We then calculate S/N of $\kappa$HI detection, including cases with cut sky observations, and noise from radio and lensing measurements. We present Fisher forecasts based on the resulting 2-point functions; these forecasts show that by measuring $\kappa\Delta$$T_\mathrm{HI}$ correlation functions in a sufficient number of redshift bins, constraints on cosmology and HI bias will be possible

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The Gravitational Lensing Imprints of DES Y3 Superstructures on the CMB: A Matched Filtering Approach

$ $Low density cosmic voids gravitationally lens the cosmic microwave background (CMB), leaving a negative imprint on the CMB convergence $\kappa$. This effect provides insight into the distribution of matter within voids, and can also be used to study the growth of structure. We measure this lensing imprint by cross-correlating the Planck CMB lensing convergence map with voids identified in the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 data set, covering approximately 4,200 deg$^2$ of the sky. We use two distinct void-finding algorithms: a 2D void-finder which operates on the projected galaxy density field in thin redshift shells, and a new code, Voxel, which operates on the full 3D map of galaxy positions. We employ an optimal matched filtering method for cross-correlation, using the MICE N-body simulation both to establish the template for the matched filter and to calibrate detection significances. Using the DES Y3 photometric luminous red galaxy sample, we measure $A_\kappa$, the amplitude of the observed lensing signal relative to the simulation template, obtaining $A_\kappa = 1.03 \pm 0.22$ ($4.6\sigma$ significance) for Voxel and $A_\kappa = 1.02 \pm 0.17$ ($5.9\sigma$ significance) for 2D voids, both consistent with $\Lambda$CDM expectations. We additionally invert the 2D void-finding process to identify superclusters in the projected density field, for which we measure $A_\kappa = 0.87 \pm 0.15$ ($5.9\sigma$ significance). The leading source of noise in our measurements is Planck noise, implying that future data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), South Pole Telescope (SPT) and CMB-S4 will increase sensitivity and allow for more precise measurements.

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Cosmological constraints on early dark energy from the full shape analysis of eBOSS DR16

We evaluate the effectiveness of Early Dark Energy (EDE) in addressing the Hubble tension using data from the completed eBOSS survey, focusing on luminous red galaxies (LRGs), quasars (QSOs), and emission line galaxies (ELGs). We perform cosmological parameter measurements based on full shape analysis of the power spectrum of all three tracers. We conduct this full shape analysis with the effective field theory of large-scale structure (EFTofLSS). EDE is known to strongly suffer from volume projection effects, which makes the interpretation of cosmological constraints challenging. To quantify the volume projection effects within an EDE full shape analysis, we explore the impact of different prior choices on the nuisance parameters of EFTofLSS through an extensive mock study. We compare classical Gaussian priors to the non-informative Jeffreys prior, known to mitigate volume projection effects in $\Lambda$CDM. Our full shape analysis combines eBOSS and BOSS data with Planck, external Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO), PantheonPlus, and SH0ES supernova data. EDE demonstrates to reduce the tension from $5.2\sigma$ to $3\sigma$ compared to $\Lambda$CDM. The derived values at a 68\% credible interval with Gaussian and Jeffreys priors are $H_0=71.73_{-0.86}^{+0.82}$ km/s/Mpc with $f_\mathrm{EDE} = 0.1179_{-0.022}^{+0.025}$ and $H_0=72.03_{-0.87}^{+0.82}$ km/s/Mpc with $f_\mathrm{EDE} = 0.1399_{-0.022}^{+0.023}$, respectively. Although the Hubble tension is mitigated compared to $\Lambda$CDM, the inclusion of eBOSS data amplifies the tension within EDE from $2\sigma$ to $3\sigma$, in contrast to the full shape analysis of BOSS data with Planck, external BAO, PantheonPlus, and SH0ES. This highlights the significance of incorporating additional large-scale structure data in discussions concerning models aiming to resolve the Hubble tension.

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A multitracer analysis for the eBOSS galaxy sample based on the effective field theory of large-scale structure

We perform a multitracer full-shape analysis in Fourier space based on the effective field theory of large-scale structure (EFTofLSS) using the complete Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV) extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) DR16 luminous red galaxy (LRG) and emission line galaxy (ELG) samples. We study in detail the impact of the volume projection effect and different prior choices when doing the full-shape analysis based on the EFTofLSS model. We show that adopting a combination of Jeffreys prior and Gaussian prior can mitigate the volume effect and avoid exploring unphysical regions in the parameter space at the same time, which is crucial when jointly analysing the eBOSS LRG and ELG samples. We validate our pipeline using 1000 eBOSS EZmocks. By performing a multitracer analysis on mocks with comparable footprints, we find that cosmological constraints can be improved by $\sim10-35$ per cent depending on whether we assume zero stochastic terms in the cross power spectrum, which breaks the degeneracy and boosts the constraints on the standard deviation of matter density fluctuation $\sigma_8$. Combining with the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) prior and fixing the spectral tilt $n_s$ to Planck value, our multitracer full-shape analysis measures $H_0=70.0\pm2.3~{\mathrm{km}}~{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$, $\Omega_m=0.317^{+0.017}_{-0.021}$, $\sigma_8=0.787_{-0.062}^{+0.055}$ and $S_8=0.809_{-0.078}^{+0.064}$, consistent with the Planck~2018 results. In particular, the constraint on $\sigma_8$ is improved beyond that obtained from the single tracer analysis by $18$ per cent, or by $27$ per cent when assuming zero stochastic terms in the cross power spectrum.

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The Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program results: Type Ia Supernova brightness correlates with host galaxy dust

Cosmological analyses with type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) often assume a single empirical relation between color and luminosity ($\beta$) and do not account for varying host-galaxy dust properties. However, from studies of dust in large samples of galaxies, it is known that dust attenuation can vary significantly. Here we take advantage of state-of-the-art modeling of galaxy properties to characterize dust parameters (dust attenuation $A_V$, and a parameter describing the dust law slope $R_V$) for the Dark Energy Survey (DES) SN Ia host galaxies using the publicly available \texttt{BAGPIPES} code. Utilizing optical and infrared data of the hosts alone, we find three key aspects of host dust that impact SN Ia cosmology: 1) there exists a large range ($\sim1-6$) of host $R_V$ 2) high stellar mass hosts have $R_V$ on average $\sim0.7$ lower than that of low-mass hosts 3) there is a significant ($>3\sigma$) correlation between the Hubble diagram residuals of red SNe Ia that when corrected for reduces scatter by $\sim13\%$ and the significance of the ``mass step'' to $\sim1\sigma$. These represent independent confirmations of recent predictions based on dust that attempted to explain the puzzling ``mass step'' and intrinsic scatter ($\sigma_{\rm int}$) in SN Ia analyses. We also find that red-sequence galaxies have both lower and more peaked dust law slope distributions on average in comparison to non red-sequence galaxies. We find that the SN Ia $\beta$ and $\sigma_{\rm int}$ both differ by $>3\sigma$ when determined separately for red-sequence galaxy and all other galaxy hosts. The agreement between fitted host-$R_V$ and SN Ia $\beta$ \& $\sigma_{\rm int}$ suggests that host dust properties play a major role in SN Ia color-luminosity standardization and supports the claim that SN Ia intrinsic scatter is driven by $R_V$ variation.

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The effect of quasar redshift errors on Lyman-$\alpha$ forest correlation functions

Using synthetic Lyman-$\alpha$ forests from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey, we present a study of the impact of errors in the estimation of quasar redshift on the Lyman-$\alpha$ correlation functions. Estimates of quasar redshift have large uncertainties of a few hundred $\text{km s}^{-1}\,$ due to the broadness of the emission lines and the intrinsic shifts from other emission lines. We inject Gaussian random redshift errors into the mock quasar catalogues, and measure the auto-correlation and the Lyman-$\alpha$-quasar cross-correlation functions. We find a smearing of the BAO feature in the radial direction, but changes in the peak position are negligible. However, we see a significant unphysical correlation for small separations transverse to the line of sight which increases with the amplitude of the redshift errors. We interpret this contamination as a result of the broadening of emission lines in the measured mean continuum, caused by quasar redshift errors, combined with the unrealistically strong clustering of the simulated quasars on small scales.

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Probing the Cosmic Dark Ages with the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope

The Cosmic Dark Ages represent the period in the early evolution of the Universe, starting immediately after the decoupling of CMB photons from matter, and ending with the formation of the first stars and galaxies. The HI signal from the neutral hydrogen atoms is the only mechanism for us to understand this crucial phase in the cosmological history of the Universe and answer fundamental questions about the validity of the standard cosmological model, dark matter physics, and inflation. Due to cosmological redshift, this signal is now only observable in the 3-30~MHz frequency band, which is blocked from reaching the surface of the Earth by the ionosphere. In this paper, we present the design of the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope that intends to carry out unprecedented measurements of this signal by deploying a kilometer-sized parabolic reflector mesh inside a lunar crater on the far side of the Moon and suspending a receiver at its focus.

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A new consistency test for $\Lambda$CDM cosmology using galaxy surveys

We propose a new consistency test for the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology using baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) and redshift space distortion (RSD) measurements from galaxy redshift surveys. Specifically, we determine the peak position of $f\sigma_8(z)$ in redshift $z$ offered by a RSD measurement, and compare it to the one predicted by the BAO observables assuming a flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. We demonstrate this new test using the simulated data for the DESI galaxy survey, and argue that this test complements those using the background observables alone, and is less subject to systematics in the RSD analysis, compared to traditional methods using values of $f\sigma_8(z)$ directly.

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Cosmology with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) has two scientific objectives of cosmological focus: to probe the expansion rate of the universe, and to understand stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds and their implications for early universe and particle physics, from the MeV to the Planck scale. However, the range of potential cosmological applications of gravitational wave observations extends well beyond these two objectives. This publication presents a summary of the state of the art in LISA cosmology, theory and methods, and identifies new opportunities to use gravitational wave observations by LISA to probe the universe.

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Light bending by the cosmological constant

We revisit the question of whether the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ affects the cosmological gravitational bending of light, by numerical integration of the geodesic equations for a Swiss cheese model consisting of a point mass and a compensated vacuole, in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background. We find that there is virtually no dependence of the light bending on the cosmological constant that is not already accounted for in the angular diameter distances of the standard lensing equations, plus small modifications that arise because the bending is restricted to a finite region covered by the hole. The residual $\Lambda$ dependence for a $10^{13}\,M_{\odot}$ lens is at the level of 1 part in $10^7$, and even this might be accounted for by small changes in the hole size evolution as the photon crosses. We therefore conclude that there is no need for modification of the standard cosmological lensing equations in the presence of a cosmological constant.

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Galaxy power spectrum and biasing results from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (first data release)

The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) is an ongoing survey aiming to observe the entire Northern sky, providing an excellent opportunity to study the distribution and evolution of the large-scale structure of the Universe. The source catalogue from the public LoTSS first data release (DR1) covers 1% of the sky, and shows correlated noise or fluctuations of the flux density calibration on few degree scales. We explore the LoTSS DR1 to understand the survey systematics and data quality of this first data release. We produce catalog mocks to estimate uncertainties, and measure the angular clustering statistics of LoTSS galaxies, which fit the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology reasonably well. We employ a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) based Bayesian analysis to recover the best galaxy biasing scheme and multi-component source fraction for LoTSS DR1 above $1$ mJy assuming different possible redshift templates. After masking some noisy and uneven patches and with suitable flux density cuts, the LOFAR survey appears qualified for large-scale cosmological studies. The upcoming data releases from LOFAR are expected to be deeper and wider, and will therefore provide improved cosmological measurements.

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HI constraints from the cross-correlation of eBOSS galaxies and Green Bank Telescope intensity maps

We present the joint analysis of Neutral Hydrogen (HI) Intensity Mapping observations with three galaxy samples: the Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) and Emission Line Galaxy (ELG) samples from the eBOSS survey, and the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey sample. The HI intensity maps are Green Bank Telescope observations of the redshifted 21cm emission on 100deg2 covering the redshift range $0.6<z<1.0$. We process the data by separating and removing the foregrounds with FastICA, and construct a transfer function to correct for the effects of foreground removal on the HI signal. We cross-correlate the cleaned HI data with the galaxy samples and study the overall amplitude as well as the scale-dependence of the power spectrum. We also qualitatively compare our findings with the predictions by a semi-analytic galaxy evolution simulation. The cross-correlations constrain the quantity $\Omega_{{HI}} b_{{HI}} r_{{HI},{opt}}$ at an effective scale $k_{eff}$, where $\Omega_{HI}$ is the HI density fraction, $b_{HI}$ is the HI bias, and $r_{{HI},{opt}}$ the galaxy-hydrogen correlation coefficient, which is dependent on the HI content of the optical galaxy sample. At $k_{eff}=0.31 \, h/{Mpc}$ we find $\Omega_{{HI}} b_{{HI}} r_{{HI},{Wig}} = [0.58 \pm 0.09 \, {(stat) \pm 0.05 \, {(sys)}}] \times 10^{-3}$ for GBT-WiggleZ, $\Omega_{{HI}} b_{{HI}} r_{{HI,{ELG}}} = [0.40 \pm 0.09 \, {(stat) \pm 0.04 \, {(sys)}}] \times 10^{-3}$ for GBT-ELG, and $\Omega_{{HI}} b_{{HI}} r_{{HI},{LRG}} = [0.35 \pm 0.08 \, {(stat) \pm 0.03 \, {(sys)}}] \times 10^{-3}$ for GBT-LRG, at $z\simeq 0.8$. We also report results at $k_{eff}=0.24 \, h/{Mpc}$ and $k_{eff}=0.48 \, h/{Mpc}$. With little information on HI parameters beyond our local Universe, these are amongst the most precise constraints on neutral hydrogen density fluctuations in an underexplored redshift range.

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OzDES Reverberation Mapping Program: Lag recovery reliability for 6-year CIV analysis

We present the statistical methods that have been developed to analyse the OzDES reverberation mapping sample. To perform this statistical analysis we have created a suite of customisable simulations that mimic the characteristics of each source in the OzDES sample. These characteristics include: the variability in the photometric and spectroscopic lightcurves, the measurement uncertainties, and the observational cadence. By simulating the sources in the OzDES sample that contain the CIV emission line, we developed a set of criteria that rank the reliability of a recovered time lag depending on the agreement between different recovery methods, the magnitude of the uncertainties, and the rate at which false positives were found in the simulations. These criteria were applied to simulated light curves and these results used to estimate the quality of the resulting Radius-Luminosity relation.We grade the results using three quality levels (gold, silver and bronze). The input slope of the R-L relation was recovered within $1\sigma$ for each of the three quality samples, with the gold standard having the lowest dispersion with a recovered a R-L relation slope of $0.454\pm 0.016$ with an input slope of 0.47. Future work will apply these methods to the entire OzDES sample of 771 AGN.

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Obtaining non-linear galaxy bias constraints from galaxy-lensing phase differences

We demonstrate the utility and constraining power of a new statistic for investigating galaxy bias: the galaxy-lensing phase difference. The statistic consists in taking the differences of the phases of the harmonic wave-modes between the weak lensing convergence field and the galaxy count field. We use dark matter simulations populated with galaxies up to redshift $z=1$ to test the performance of this estimator. We find that phase differences are sensitive to the absolute value of the second order bias ($c_2=b_2/b_1$), and demonstrate why this is the case. For a $\sim$1500 sq. deg. galaxy survey we recover $c_2$ with an error of approximately $0.1$ for a wide range of $c_2$ values; current constraints from redshift surveys have errors of 0.1-0.6 depending on redshift. This new statistic is therefore expected to provide constraints for $c_2$ which are complementary and competitive with constraining power by the conventional estimators from the power spectrum and bispectrum. For the Dark Energy Survey (DES), we predict leading measurements of second-order bias.

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Probing galaxy evolution in massive clusters using ACT and DES: splashback as a cosmic clock

We measure the projected number density profiles of galaxies and the splashback feature in clusters selected by the Sunyaev--Zeldovich (SZ) effect from the Advanced Atacama Cosmology Telescope (AdvACT) survey using galaxies observed by the Dark Energy Survey (DES). The splashback radius for the complete galaxy sample is consistent with theoretical measurements from CDM-only simulations, and is located at $2.4^{+0.3}_{-0.4}$ Mpc $h^{-1}$. We split the sample based on galaxy color and find significant differences in the profile shapes. Red galaxies and those in the green valley show a splashback-like minimum in their slope profile consistent with theoretical predictions, while the bluest galaxies show a weak feature that appears at a smaller radius. We develop a mapping of galaxies to subhalos in $N$-body simulations by splitting subhalos based on infall time onto the cluster halos. We find that the location of the steepest slope and differences in the shapes of the profiles can be mapped to differences in the average time of infall of galaxies of different colors. The minima of the slope in the galaxy profiles trace a discontinuity in the phase space of dark matter halos. By relating spatial profiles to infall time for galaxies of different colours, we can use splashback as a clock to understand galaxy quenching. We find that red galaxies have on average been in their clusters for over $3.2 ~\rm Gyrs$, green galaxies about $2.2 ~\rm Gyrs$, while blue galaxies have been accreted most recently and have not reached apocenter. Using the information from the complete radial profiles, we fit a simple quenching model and find that the onset of galaxy quenching in clusters occurs after a delay of about a gigayear, and that galaxies quench rapidly thereafter with an exponential timescale of $0.6$ Gyr.

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Impact of Relativistic Effects on the Primordial Non-Gaussianity Signature in the Large-Scale Clustering of Quasars

Relativistic effects in clustering observations have been shown to introduce scale-dependent corrections to the galaxy over-density field on large scales, which may hamper the detection of primordial non-Gaussianity $f_\textrm{NL}$ through the scale-dependent halo bias. The amplitude of relativistic corrections depends not only on the cosmological background expansion, but also on the redshift evolution and sensitivity to the luminosity threshold of the tracer population being examined, as parametrised by the evolution bias $b_\textrm{e}$ and magnification bias $s$. In this work, we propagate luminosity function measurements from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) to $b_\textrm{e}$ and $s$ for the quasar (QSO) sample, and thereby derive constraints on relativistic corrections to its power spectrum multipoles. Although one could mitigate the impact on the $f_\textrm{NL}$ signature by adjusting the redshift range or the luminosity threshold of the tracer sample being considered, we suggest that, for future surveys probing large cosmic volumes, relativistic corrections should be forward modelled from the tracer luminosity function including its uncertainties. This will be important to quasar clustering measurements on scales $k \sim 10^{-3} h \, \textrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ in upcoming surveys such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), where relativistic corrections can overwhelm the expected $f_\textrm{NL}$ signature at low redshifts $z \lesssim 1$ and become comparable to $f_\textrm{NL} \simeq 1$ in the power spectrum quadrupole at redshifts $z \gtrsim 2.5$.

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