arXiv subjects

Richard Neveux

Publications and source records attributed to Richard Neveux.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

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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arXiv2022

The Completed SDSS-IV Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Growth rate of structure measurement from cosmic voids

We present a void clustering analysis in configuration-space using the completed Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV) extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) DR16 samples. These samples consist of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRG) combined with the high redshift tail of the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) DR12 CMASS galaxies (called as LRG+CMASS sample), Emission Line Galaxies (ELG) and quasars (QSO). We build void catalogues from the three eBOSS DR16 samples using a ZOBOV-based algorithm, providing 2,814 voids, 1,801 voids and 4,347 voids in the LRG+CMASS, ELG and QSO samples, respectively, spanning the redshift range $0.6<z<2.2$. We measure the redshift space distortions (RSD) around voids using the anisotropic void-galaxy cross-correlation function and we extract the distortion parameter $β$. We test the methodology on realistic simulations before applying it to the data, and we investigate all our systematic errors on these mocks. We find $β^{\rm LRG}(z=0.74)=0.415\pm0.087$, $β^{\rm ELG}(z=0.85)=0.665\pm0.125$ and $β^{\rm QSO}(z=1.48)=0.313\pm0.134$, for the LRG+CMASS, ELG and QSO sample, respectively. The quoted errors include systematic and statistical contributions. In order to convert our measurements in terms of the growth rate $fσ_8$, we use consensus values of linear bias from the eBOSS DR16 companion papers~\citep{eBOSScosmo}, resulting in the following constraints: $fσ_8(z=0.74)=0.50\pm0.11$, $fσ_8(z=0.85)=0.52\pm0.10$ and $fσ_8(z=1.48)=0.30\pm0.13$. Our measurements are consistent with other measurements from eBOSS DR16 using conventional clustering techniques.

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arXiv2022

Combined full shape analysis of BOSS galaxies and eBOSS quasars using an iterative emulator

Standard full-shape clustering analyses in Fourier space rely on a fixed power spectrum template, defined at the fiducial cosmology used to convert redshifts into distances, and compress the cosmological information into the Alcock-Paczynski parameters and the linear growth rate of structure. In this paper, we propose an analysis method that operates directly in the cosmology parameter space and varies the power spectrum template accordingly at each tested point. Predictions for the power spectrum multipoles from the TNS model are computed at different cosmologies in the framework of $Λ\rm{CDM}$. Applied to the final eBOSS QSO and LRG samples together with the low-z DR12 BOSS galaxy sample, our analysis results in a set of constraints on the cosmological parameters $Ω_{\rm cdm}$, $H_0$, $σ_8$, $Ω_{\rm b}$ and $n_s$. To reduce the number of computed models, we construct an iterative process to sample the likelihood surface, where each iteration consists of a Gaussian process regression. This method is validated with mocks from N-body simulations. From the combined analysis of the (e)BOSS data, we obtain the following constraints: $σ_8=0.877\pm 0.049$ and $Ω_{\rm m}=0.304^{+0.016}_{-0.010}$ without any external prior. The eBOSS quasar sample alone shows a $3.1σ$ discrepancy compared to the Planck prediction.

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arXiv2021

The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: N-body Mock Challenge for the eBOSS Emission Line Galaxy Sample

Cosmological growth can be measured in the redshift space clustering of galaxies targeted by spectroscopic surveys. Accurate prediction of clustering of galaxies will require understanding galaxy physics which is a very hard and highly non-linear problem. Approximate models of redshift space distortion (RSD) take a perturbative approach to solve the evolution of dark matter and galaxies in the universe. In this paper we focus on eBOSS emission line galaxies (ELGs) which live in intermediate mass haloes. We create a series of mock catalogues using haloes from the Multidark and {\sc Outer Rim} dark matter only N-body simulations. Our mock catalogues include various effects inspired by baryonic physics such as assembly bias and the characteristics of satellite galaxies kinematics, dynamics and statistics deviating from dark matter particles. We analyse these mocks using the TNS RSD model in Fourier space and the CLPT in configuration space. We conclude that these two RSD models provide an unbiased measurement of redshift space distortion within the statistical error of our mocks. We obtain the conservative theoretical systematic uncertainty of $3.3\%$, $1.8\%$ and $1.5\%$ in $fσ_8$, $α_{\parallel}$ and $α_{\bot}$ respectively for the TNS and CLPT models. We note that the estimated theoretical systematic error is an order of magnitude smaller than the statistical error of the eBOSS ELG sample and hence are negligible for the purpose of the current eBOSS ELG analysis.

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arXiv2021

The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: BAO and RSD measurements from the anisotropic power spectrum of the Quasar sample between redshift 0.8 and 2.2

We measure the clustering of quasars of the final data release (DR16) of eBOSS. The sample contains $343\,708$ quasars between redshifts $0.8\leq z\leq2.2$ over $4699\,\mathrm{deg}^2$. We calculate the Legendre multipoles (0,2,4) of the anisotropic power spectrum and perform a BAO and a Full-Shape (FS) analysis at the effective redshift $z{\rm eff}=1.480$. The errors include systematic errors that amount to 1/3 of the statistical error. The systematic errors comprise a modelling part studied using a blind N-Body mock challenge and observational effects studied with approximate mocks to account for various types of redshift smearing and fibre collisions. For the BAO analysis, we measure the transverse comoving distance $D_{\rm M}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag}=30.60\pm{0.90}$ and the Hubble distance $D_{\rm H}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag}=13.34\pm{0.60}$. This agrees with the configuration space analysis, and the consensus yields: $D_{\rm M}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag}=30.69\pm{0.80}$ and $D_{\rm H}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag}=13.26\pm{0.55}$. In the FS analysis, we fit the power spectrum using a model based on Regularised Perturbation Theory, which includes Redshift Space Distortions and the Alcock-Paczynski effect. The results are $D_{\rm M}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag}=30.68\pm{0.90}$ and $D_{\rm H}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag}=13.52\pm{0.51}$ and we constrain the linear growth rate of structure $f(z_{\rm eff})σ_8(z_{\rm eff})=0.476\pm{0.047}$. Our results agree with the configuration space analysis. The consensus analysis of the eBOSS quasar sample yields: $D_{\rm M}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag}=30.21\pm{0.79}$, $D_{\rm H}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag}=3.23\pm{0.47}$ and $f(z_{\rm eff})σ_8(z_{\rm eff})=0.462\pm{0.045}$ and is consistent with a flat $Λ{\rm CDM}$ cosmological model using Planck results.

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arXiv2021

The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey quasar sample: Testing observational systematics on the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation measurement

Baryon Acoustic Oscillations are considered to be a very robust standard ruler against various systematics. This premise has been tested against observational systematics, but not to the level required for the next generation of galaxy surveys such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and Euclid. In this paper, we investigate the effect of observational systematics on the BAO measurement of the final sample of quasars from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 16 in order to prepare and hone a similar analysis for upcoming surveys. We employ catalogues with various treatments of imaging systematic effects using linear and neural network-based nonlinear approaches and consider how the BAO measurement changes. We also test how the variations to the BAO fitting model respond to the observational systematics. As expected, we confirm that the BAO measurements obtained from the DR16 quasar sample are robust against imaging systematics well within the statistical error, while reporting slightly modified constraints that shift the line-of-sight BAO signal by less than 1.1% . We use realistic simulations with similar redshift and angular distributions as the DR16 sample to conduct statistical tests for validating the pipeline, quantifying the significance of differences, and estimating the expected bias on the BAO scale in future high-precision data sets. Although we find a marginal impact for the eBOSS QSO data, the work presented here is of vital importance for constraining the nature of dark energy with the BAO feature in the new era of big data cosmology with DESI and Euclid.

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arXiv2021

The completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: 1000 multi-tracer mock catalogues with redshift evolution and systematics for galaxies and quasars of the final data release

We produce 1000 realizations of synthetic clustering catalogues for each type of the tracers used for the baryon acoustic oscillation and redshift space distortion analysis of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey final data release (eBOSS DR16), covering the redshift range from 0.6 to 2.2, to provide reliable estimates of covariance matrices and test the robustness of the analysis pipeline with respect to observational systematics. By extending the Zel'dovich approximation density field with an effective tracer bias model calibrated with the clustering measurements from the observational data, we accurately reproduce the two- and three-point clustering statistics of the eBOSS DR16 tracers, including their cross-correlations in redshift space with very low computational costs. In addition, we include the gravitational evolution of structures and sample selection biases at different redshifts, as well as various photometric and spectroscopic systematic effects. The agreements on the auto-clustering statistics between the data and mocks are generally within 1 $σ$ variances inferred from the mocks, for scales down to a few $h^{-1}\,{\rm Mpc}$ in configuration space, and up to $0.3\,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ in Fourier space. For the cross correlations between different tracers, the same level of consistency presents in configuration space, while there are only discrepancies in Fourier space for scales above $0.15\,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$. The accurate reproduction of the data clustering statistics permits reliable covariances for multi-tracer analysis.

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arXiv2020

The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: BAO and RSD measurements from anisotropic clustering analysis of the Quasar Sample in configuration space between redshift 0.8 and 2.2

We measure the anisotropic clustering of the quasar sample from Data Release 16 (DR16) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS). A sample of $343,708$ spectroscopically confirmed quasars between redshift $0.8<z<2.2$ are used as tracers of the underlying dark matter field. In comparison with DR14 sample, the final sample doubles the number of objects as well as the survey area. In this paper, we present the analysis in configuration space by measuring the two-point correlation function and decompose using the Legendre polynomials. For the full-shape analysis of the Legendre multipole moments, we measure the BAO distance and the growth rate of the cosmic structure. At an effective redshift of $z_{\rm eff}=1.48$, we measure the comoving angular diameter distance $D_{\rm M}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 30.66\pm0.88$, the Hubble distance $D_{\rm H}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 13.11\pm0.52$, and the growth rate $fσ_8(z_{\rm eff}) = 0.439\pm0.048$. The accuracy of these measurements is confirmed using an extensive set of mock simulations developed for the quasar sample. The uncertainties on the distance and growth rate measurements have been reduced substantially ($\sim 45\%$ and $\sim30\%$) with respect to the DR14 results. We also perform a BAO-only analysis to cross check the robustness of the methodology of the full-shape analysis. Combining our analysis with the Fourier space analysis, we arrive at $D^{\bf{c}}_{\rm M}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 30.22 \pm 0.79$, $D^{\bf{c}}_{\rm H}(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 13.26 \pm 0.47$, and $fσ_8^{\bf{c}}(z_{\rm eff}) = 0.464 \pm 0.045$.

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arXiv2020

Testing General Relativity on cosmological scales at redshift z ~ 1.5 with quasar and CMB lensing

We test general relativity (GR) at the effective redshift $\bar{z} \sim 1.5$ by estimating the statistic $E_G$, a probe of gravity, on cosmological scales $19 - 190\,h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$. This is the highest-redshift and largest-scale estimation of $E_G$ so far. We use the quasar sample with redshifts $0.8 < z < 2.2$ from Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) Data Release 16 (DR16) as the large-scale structure (LSS) tracer, for which the angular power spectrum $C_\ell^{qq}$ and the redshift-space distortion (RSD) parameter $β$ are estimated. By cross correlating with the $\textit{Planck}$ 2018 cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing map, we detect the angular cross-power spectrum $C_\ell^{κq}$ signal at $12\,σ$ significance. Both jackknife resampling and simulations are used to estimate the covariance matrix (CM) of $E_G$ at $5$ bins covering different scales, with the later preferred for its better constraints on the covariances. We find $E_G$ estimates agree with the GR prediction at $1\,σ$ level over all these scales. With the CM estimated with $300$ simulations, we report a best-fit scale-averaged estimate of $E_G(\bar{z})=0.30\pm 0.05$, which is in line with the GR prediction $E_G^{\rm GR}(\bar{z})=0.33$ with $\textit{Planck}$ 2018 CMB+BAO matter density fraction $Ω_{\rm m}=0.31$. The statistical errors of $E_G$ with future LSS surveys at similar redshifts will be reduced by an order of magnitude, which makes it possible to constrain modified gravity models.

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arXiv2020

The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: measurement of the BAO and growth rate of structure of the luminous red galaxy sample from the anisotropic power spectrum between redshifts 0.6 and 1.0

We analyse the clustering of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 16 luminous red galaxy sample (DR16 eBOSS LRG) in combination with the high redshift tail of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 12 (DR12 BOSS CMASS). We measure the redshift space distortions (RSD) and also extract the longitudinal and transverse baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale from the anisotropic power spectrum signal inferred from 377,458 galaxies between redshifts 0.6 and 1.0, with effective redshift of $z_{\rm eff}=0.698$ and effective comoving volume of $2.72\,{\rm Gpc}^3$. After applying reconstruction we measure the BAO scale and infer $D_H(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 19.30\pm 0.56$ and $D_M(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} =17.86 \pm 0.37$. When we perform a redshift space distortions analysis on the pre-reconstructed catalogue on the monopole, quadrupole and hexadecapole we find, $D_H(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 20.18\pm 0.78$, $D_M(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} =17.49 \pm 0.52$ and $fσ_8(z_{\rm eff})=0.454\pm0.046$. We combine both sets of results along with the measurements in configuration space of \cite{LRG_corr} and report the following consensus values: $D_H(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 19.77\pm 0.47$, $D_M(z_{\rm eff})/r_{\rm drag} = 17.65\pm 0.30$ and $fσ_8(z_{\rm eff})=0.473\pm 0.044$, which are in full agreement with the standard $Λ$CDM and GR predictions. These results represent the most precise measurements within the redshift range $0.6\leq z \leq 1.0$ and are the culmination of more than 8 years of SDSS observations.

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arXiv2020

The Completed SDSS-IV Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: N-body Mock Challenge for the Quasar Sample

The growth rate and expansion history of the Universe can be measured from large galaxy redshift surveys using the Alcock-Paczynski effect. We validate the Redshift Space Distortion models used in the final analysis of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) Data Release 16 quasar clustering sample, in configuration and Fourier space, using a series of HOD mock catalogues generated using the OuterRim N-body simulation. We test three models on a series of non-blind mocks, in the OuterRim cosmology, and blind mocks, which have been rescaled to new cosmologies, and investigate the effects of redshift smearing and catastrophic redshifts. We find that for the non-blind mocks, the models are able to recover $fσ_8$ to within 3% and $α_\parallel$ and $α_\bot$ to within 1%. The scatter in the measurements is larger for the blind mocks, due to the assumption of an incorrect fiducial cosmology. From this mock challenge, we find that all three models perform well, with similar systematic errors on $fσ_8$, $α_\parallel$ and $α_\bot$ at the level of $σ_{fσ_8}=0.013$, $σ_{α_\parallel}=0.012$ and $σ_{α_\bot}=0.008$. The systematic error on the combined consensus is $σ_{fσ_8}=0.011$, $σ_{α_\parallel}=0.008$ and $σ_{α_\bot}=0.005$, which is used in the final DR16 analysis. For BAO fits in configuration and Fourier space, we take conservative systematic errors of $σ_{α_\parallel}=0.010$ and $σ_{α_\bot}=0.007$.

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arXiv2020

The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Large-scale Structure Catalogs for Cosmological Analysis

We present large-scale structure catalogs from the completed extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS). Derived from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) -IV Data Release 16 (DR16), these catalogs provide the data samples, corrected for observational systematics, and random positions sampling the survey selection function. Combined, they allow large-scale clustering measurements suitable for testing cosmological models. We describe the methods used to create these catalogs for the eBOSS DR16 Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) and Quasar samples. The quasar catalog contains 343,708 redshifts with $0.8 < z < 2.2$ over 4,808\,deg$^2$. We combine 174,816 eBOSS LRG redshifts over 4,242\,deg$^2$ in the redshift interval $0.6 < z < 1.0$ with SDSS-III BOSS LRGs in the same redshift range to produce a combined sample of 377,458 galaxy redshifts distributed over 9,493\,deg$^2$. Improved algorithms for estimating redshifts allow that 98 per cent of LRG observations result in a successful redshift, with less than one per cent catastrophic failures ($Δz > 1000$ ${\rm km~s}^{-1}$). For quasars, these rates are 95 and 2 per cent (with $Δz > 3000$ ${\rm km~s}^{-1}$). We apply corrections for trends between the number densities of our samples and the properties of the imaging and spectroscopic data. For example, the quasar catalog obtains a $χ^2$/DoF$= 776/10$ for a null test against imaging depth before corrections and a $χ^2$/DoF$=6/8$ after. The catalogs, combined with careful consideration of the details of their construction found here-in, allow companion papers to present cosmological results with negligible impact from observational systematic uncertainties.

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arXiv2020

The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Pairwise-Inverse-Probability and Angular Correction for Fibre Collisions in Clustering Measurements

The completed eBOSS catalogues contain redshifts of 344080 QSOs over 0.8<z<2.2 covering 4808 deg$^2$, 174816 LRGs over 0.6<z<1.0 covering 4242 deg$^2$ and 173736 ELGs over 0.6<z<1.1 covering 1170 deg$^2$ in order to constrain the expansion history of the Universe and the growth rate of structure through clustering measurements. Mechanical limitations of the fibre-fed spectrograph on the Sloan telescope prevent two fibres being placed closer than 62", the fibre-collision scale, in a single pass of the instrument on the sky. These `fibre collisions' strongly correlate with the intrinsic clustering of targets and can bias measurements of the two-point correlation function resulting in a systematic error on the inferred values of the cosmological parameters. We combine the new techniques of pairwise-inverse-probability weighting and the angular up-weighting to correct the clustering measurements for the effect of fibre collisions. Using mock catalogues we show that our corrections provide unbiased measurements, within data precision, of both the projected correlation function $w_p$ and the multipoles $ξ^l$ of the redshift-space correlation functions down to 0.1Mpc/h, regardless of the tracer type. We apply the corrections to the eBOSS DR16 catalogues. We find that, on scales greater than s~20Mpc/h for $ξ^l$, as used to make BAO and large-scale RSD measurements, approximate methods such as Nearest-Neighbour up-weighting are sufficiently accurate given the statistical errors of the data. Using the PIP method, for the first time for a spectroscopic program of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey we are able to successfully access the 1-halo term in the 3D clustering measurements down to ~0.1Mpc/h scales. Our results will therefore allow studies that use the small-scale clustering measurements to strengthen the constraints on both cosmological parameters and the halo-occupation distribution models.

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arXiv2020

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$\alpha$ 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, $f\sigma_8$, 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, $\Lambda$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 $\Lambda$CDM model. Regardless of cosmological model, the precision on $\Omega_\Lambda$, $H_0$, and $\sigma_8$, 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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