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Shirley Ho

Publications and source records attributed to Shirley Ho.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Measurement of marked correlation functions in SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey using LOWZ galaxies in Data Release 12

Marked correlation functions, which are sensitive to the clustering of galaxies in different environments, have been proposed as constraints on modified gravity models. We present measurements of the marked correlation functions of galaxies in redshift space using 361,761 LOWZ ($z_{\rm eff} = 0.32$) galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS III) Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release 12 (DR12) and compare them to $Λ$CDM+General Relativity simulations. We apply mass cuts to find the best match between the redshift space autocorrelation function of subhaloes in the simulation and in the observations. We then compare the marked correlation functions, finding no significant evidence for deviations of the marked correlation functions of LOWZ galaxies from $Λ$CDM on scales $6 \ h^{-1}$Mpc $ \leq s \leq$ $69 \ h^{-1}$Mpc. The constraining power of marked correlation functions in our analysis is limited by our ability to model the autocorrelation function of galaxies on small scales including the effect of redshift distortions. The statistical errors are well below the differences seen between marked correlation functions of $f$(R) gravity models and $Λ$CDM in recent publications (Armijo et al., Hernández-Aguayo et al.) indicating that improved future theoretical analyses should be able to rule out some models definitively.

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Scale-dependent galaxy bias, CMB lensing-galaxy cross-correlation, and neutrino masses

One of the most powerful cosmological datasets when it comes to constraining neutrino masses is represented by galaxy power spectrum measurements, $P_{gg}(k)$. The constraining power of $P_{gg}(k)$ is however severely limited by uncertainties in the modeling of the scale-dependent galaxy bias $b(k)$. In this Letter we present a new method to constrain $b(k)$ by using the cross-correlation between the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) lensing signal and galaxy maps ($C_\ell^{\rm κg}$) using a simple but theoretically well-motivated parametrization for $b(k)$. We apply the method using $C_\ell^{\rm κg}$ measured by cross-correlating Planck lensing maps and the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release 11 (DR11) CMASS galaxy sample, and $P_{gg}(k)$ measured from the BOSS DR12 CMASS sample. We detect a non-zero scale-dependence at moderate significance, which suggests that a proper modeling of $b(k)$ is necessary in order to reduce the impact of non-linearities and minimize the corresponding systematics. The accomplished increase in constraining power of $P_{gg}(k)$ is demonstrated by determining a 95% C.L. upper bound on the sum of the three active neutrino masses $M_ν$ of $M_ν<0.19\, {\rm eV}$. This limit represents a significant improvement over previous bounds with comparable datasets. Our method will prove especially powerful and important as future large-scale structure surveys will overlap more significantly with the CMB lensing kernel providing a large cross-correlation signal.

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Probing gravity with a joint analysis of galaxy and CMB lensing and SDSS spectroscopy

We present measurements of $E_G$, a probe of gravity from large-scale structure, using BOSS LOWZ and CMASS spectroscopic samples, with lensing measurements from SDSS (galaxy lensing) and Planck (CMB lensing). Using SDSS lensing and the BOSS LOWZ sample, we measure $\langle{E_G}\rangle=0.40^{+0.05}_{-0.04}$ (stat), $\pm 0.026$ (systematic), consistent with the predicted value from the Planck $Λ$CDM model, $E_G=0.46$. Using CMB lensing, we measure $\langle{E_G}\rangle=0.46^{+0.08}_{-0.09}$ (stat) for LOWZ (statistically consistent with galaxy lensing and Planck predictions) and $\langle{E_G}\rangle=0.39^{+0.05}_{-0.05}$ (stat) for the CMASS sample, consistent with the Planck prediction of $E_G=0.40$ given the higher redshift of the sample. We also study the redshift evolution of $E_G$ by splitting the LOWZ sample into two samples based on redshift, with results being consistent with model predictions. We estimate systematic uncertainties on the above $\langle{E_G}\rangle$ numbers to be $\sim 6$% (when using galaxy-galaxy lensing) or $\sim 3$% (when using CMB lensing), subdominant to the quoted statistical errors. These systematic error budgets are dominated by observational systematics in galaxy-galaxy lensing and by theoretical modeling uncertainties, respectively. We do not estimate observational systematics in galaxy-CMB lensing cross correlations.

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CosmoFlow: Using Deep Learning to Learn the Universe at Scale

Deep learning is a promising tool to determine the physical model that describes our universe. To handle the considerable computational cost of this problem, we present CosmoFlow: a highly scalable deep learning application built on top of the TensorFlow framework. CosmoFlow uses efficient implementations of 3D convolution and pooling primitives, together with improvements in threading for many element-wise operations, to improve training performance on Intel(C) Xeon Phi(TM) processors. We also utilize the Cray PE Machine Learning Plugin for efficient scaling to multiple nodes. We demonstrate fully synchronous data-parallel training on 8192 nodes of Cori with 77% parallel efficiency, achieving 3.5 Pflop/s sustained performance. To our knowledge, this is the first large-scale science application of the TensorFlow framework at supercomputer scale with fully-synchronous training. These enhancements enable us to process large 3D dark matter distribution and predict the cosmological parameters $Ω_M$, $σ_8$ and n$_s$ with unprecedented accuracy.

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Search for CII Emission on Cosmological Scales at Redshift Z~2.6

We present a search for CII emission over cosmological scales at high-redshifts. The CII line is a prime candidate to be a tracer of star formation over large-scale structure since it is one of the brightest emission lines from galaxies. Redshifted CII emission appears in the submillimeter regime, meaning it could potentially be present in the higher frequency intensity data from the Planck satellite used to measure the cosmic infrared background (CIB). We search for CII emission over redshifts z=2-3.2 in the Planck 545 GHz intensity map by cross-correlating the 3 highest frequency Planck maps with spectroscopic quasars and CMASS galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), which we then use to jointly fit for CII intensity, CIB parameters, and thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) emission. We report a measurement of an anomalous emission $\mathrm{I_ν}=6.6^{+5.0}_{-4.8}\times10^4$ Jy/sr at 95% confidence, which could be explained by CII emission, favoring collisional excitation models of CII emission that tend to be more optimistic than models based on CII luminosity scaling relations from local measurements; however, a comparison of Bayesian information criteria reveal that this model and the CIB & SZ only model are equally plausible. Thus, more sensitive measurements will be needed to confirm the existence of large-scale CII emission at high redshifts. Finally, we forecast that intensity maps from Planck cross-correlated with quasars from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) would increase our sensitivity to CII emission by a factor of 5, while the proposed Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE) could increase the sensitivity further.

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Detecting Damped Lyman-$α$ Absorbers with Gaussian Processes

We develop an automated technique for detecting damped Lyman-$α$ absorbers (DLAs) along spectroscopic lines of sight to quasi-stellar objects (QSOs or quasars). The detection of DLAs in large-scale spectroscopic surveys such as SDSS-III sheds light on galaxy formation at high redshift, showing the nucleation of galaxies from diffuse gas. We use nearly 50 000 QSO spectra to learn a novel tailored Gaussian process model for quasar emission spectra, which we apply to the DLA detection problem via Bayesian model selection. We propose models for identifying an arbitrary number of DLAs along a given line of sight. We demonstrate our method's effectiveness using a large-scale validation experiment, with excellent performance. We also provide a catalog of our results applied to 162 858 spectra from SDSS-III data release 12.

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WFIRST Science Investigation Team "Cosmology with the High Latitude Survey" Annual Report 2017

Cosmic acceleration is the most surprising cosmological discovery in many decades. Testing and distinguishing among possible explanations requires cosmological measurements of extremely high precision probing the full history of cosmic expansion and structure growth and, ideally, compare and contrast matter and relativistic tracers of the gravity potential. This program is one of the defining objectives of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), as set forth in the New Worlds, New Horizons report (NWNH) in 2010. The WFIRST mission has the ability to improve these measurements by 1-2 orders of magnitude compared to the current state of the art, while simultaneously extending their redshift grasp, greatly improving control of systematic effects, and taking a unified approach to multiple probes that provide complementary physical information and cross-checks of cosmological results. We describe in this annual report the activities of the Science Investigation Team (SIT) "Cosmology with the High Latitude Survey (HLS)" during the year 2017. This team was selected by NASA in December 2015 in order to address the stringent challenges of the WFIRST dark energy (DE) program through the Project's formulation phase. This SIT has elected to jointly address Galaxy Redshift Survey, Weak Lensing and Cluster Growth and thus fully embrace the fact that the imaging and spectroscopic elements of the HLS will be realized as an integrated observing program, and they jointly impose requirements on performance and operations. WFIRST is designed to be able to deliver a definitive result on the origin of cosmic acceleration. It is not optimized for Figure of Merit sensitivity but for control of systematic uncertainties and for having multiple techniques each with multiple cross-checks. Our SIT work focuses on understanding the potential systematics in the WFIRST DE measurements.

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Likelihood Non-Gaussianity in Large-Scale Structure Analyses

Standard present day large-scale structure (LSS) analyses make a major assumption in their Bayesian parameter inference --- that the likelihood has a Gaussian form. For summary statistics currently used in LSS, this assumption, even if the underlying density field is Gaussian, cannot be correct in detail. We investigate the impact of this assumption on two recent LSS analyses: the Beutler et al. (2017) power spectrum multipole ($P_\ell$) analysis and the Sinha et al. (2017) group multiplicity function ($ζ$) analysis. Using non-parametric divergence estimators on mock catalogs originally constructed for covariance matrix estimation, we identify significant non-Gaussianity in both the $P_\ell$ and $ζ$ likelihoods. We then use Gaussian mixture density estimation and Independent Component Analysis on the same mocks to construct likelihood estimates that approximate the true likelihood better than the Gaussian $pseudo$-likelihood. Using these likelihood estimates, we accurately estimate the true posterior probability distribution of the Beutler et al. (2017) and Sinha et al. (2017) parameters. Likelihood non-Gaussianity shifts the $fσ_8$ constraint by $-0.44σ$, but otherwise, does not significantly impact the overall parameter constraints of Beutler et al. (2017). For the $ζ$ analysis, using the pseudo-likelihood significantly underestimates the uncertainties and biases the constraints of Sinha et al. (2017) halo occupation parameters. For $\log M_1$ and $α$, the posteriors are shifted by $+0.43σ$ and $-0.51σ$ and broadened by $42\%$ and $66\%$, respectively. The divergence and likelihood estimation methods we present provide a straightforward framework for quantifying the impact of likelihood non-Gaussianity and deriving more accurate parameter constraints.

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The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: theoretical systematics and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the galaxy correlation function

We investigate the potential sources of theoretical systematics in the anisotropic Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) distance scale measurements from the clustering of galaxies in configuration space using the final Data Release (DR12) of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). We perform a detailed study of the impact on BAO measurements from choices in the methodology such as fiducial cosmology, clustering estimators, random catalogues, fitting templates, and covariance matrices. The theoretical systematic uncertainties in BAO parameters are found to be 0.002 in the isotropic dilation $α$ and 0.003 in the quadrupolar dilation $ε$. The leading source of systematic uncertainty is related to the reconstruction techniques. Theoretical uncertainties are sub-dominant compared with the statistical uncertainties for BOSS survey, accounting $0.2σ_{stat}$ for $α$ and $0.25σ_{stat}$ for $ε$ ($σ_{α,stat} \sim$0.010 and $σ_{ε,stat}\sim$ 0.012 respectively). We also present BAO-only distance scale constraints from the anisotropic analysis of the correlation function. Our constraints on the angular diameter distance $D_A(z)$ and the Hubble parameter $H(z)$, including both statistical and theoretical systematic uncertainties, are 1.5\% and 2.8\% at $z_{\rm eff}=0.38$, 1.4\% and 2.4\% at $z_{\rm eff}=0.51$, and 1.7\% and 2.6\% at $z_{\rm eff}=0.61$. This paper is part of a set that analyzes the final galaxy clustering dataset from BOSS. The measurements and likelihoods presented here are cross-checked with other BAO analysis in \citet{Acacia16}. The systematic error budget concerning the methodology on post-reconstruction BAO analysis presented here is used in \citet{Acacia16} to produce the final cosmological constraints from BOSS.

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Unveiling $ν$ secrets with cosmological data: neutrino masses and mass hierarchy

Using some of the latest cosmological datasets publicly available, we derive the strongest bounds in the literature on the sum of the three active neutrino masses, $M_ν$, within the assumption of a background flat $Λ$CDM cosmology. In the most conservative scheme, combining Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies and baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) data, as well as the up-to-date constraint on the optical depth to reionization ($τ$), the tightest $95\%$ confidence level (C.L.) upper bound we find is $M_ν<0.151$~eV. The addition of Planck high-$\ell$ polarization data, which however might still be contaminated by systematics, further tightens the bound to $M_ν<0.118$~eV. A proper model comparison treatment shows that the two aforementioned combinations disfavor the IH at $\sim 64\%$~C.L. and $\sim 71\%$~C.L. respectively. In addition, we compare the constraining power of measurements of the full-shape galaxy power spectrum versus the BAO signature, from the BOSS survey. Even though the latest BOSS full shape measurements cover a larger volume and benefit from smaller error bars compared to previous similar measurements, the analysis method commonly adopted results in their constraining power still being less powerful than that of the extracted BAO signal. Our work uses only cosmological data; imposing the constraint $M_ν>0.06\,{\rm eV}$ from oscillations data would raise the quoted upper bounds by ${\cal O}(0.1σ)$ and would not affect our conclusions.

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Estimating Cosmological Parameters from the Dark Matter Distribution

A grand challenge of the 21st century cosmology is to accurately estimate the cosmological parameters of our Universe. A major approach to estimating the cosmological parameters is to use the large-scale matter distribution of the Universe. Galaxy surveys provide the means to map out cosmic large-scale structure in three dimensions. Information about galaxy locations is typically summarized in a "single" function of scale, such as the galaxy correlation function or power-spectrum. We show that it is possible to estimate these cosmological parameters directly from the distribution of matter. This paper presents the application of deep 3D convolutional networks to volumetric representation of dark-matter simulations as well as the results obtained using a recently proposed distribution regression framework, showing that machine learning techniques are comparable to, and can sometimes outperform, maximum-likelihood point estimates using "cosmological models". This opens the way to estimating the parameters of our Universe with higher accuracy.

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The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: First measurement of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations between redshift 0.8 and 2.2

We present measurements of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) scale in redshift-space using the clustering of quasars. We consider a sample of 147,000 quasars from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) distributed over 2044 square degrees with redshifts $0.8 < z < 2.2$ and measure their spherically-averaged clustering in both configuration and Fourier space. Our observational dataset and the 1400 simulated realizations of the dataset allow us to detect a preference for BAO that is greater than 2.8$σ$. We determine the spherically averaged BAO distance to $z = 1.52$ to 3.8 per cent precision: $D_V(z=1.52)=3843\pm147 \left(r_{\rm d}/r_{\rm d, fid}\right)\ $Mpc. This is the first time the location of the BAO feature has been measured between redshifts 1 and 2. Our result is fully consistent with the prediction obtained by extrapolating the Planck flat $Λ$CDM best-fit cosmology. All of our results are consistent with basic large-scale structure (LSS) theory, confirming quasars to be a reliable tracer of LSS, and provide a starting point for numerous cosmological tests to be performed with eBOSS quasar samples. We combine our result with previous, independent, BAO distance measurements to construct an updated BAO distance-ladder. Using these BAO data alone and marginalizing over the length of the standard ruler, we find $Ω_Λ > 0$ at 6.6$σ$ significance when testing a $Λ$CDM model with free curvature.

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Relativistic asymmetries in the galaxy cross-correlation function

We study the asymmetry in the two-point cross-correlation function of two populations of galaxies focusing in particular on the relativistic effects that include the gravitational redshift. We derive the cross-correlation function on small and large scales using two different approaches: General Relativistic and Newtonian perturbation theory. Following recent work by Bonvin et al., Gaztanaga et al. and Croft, we calculate the dipole and the shell estimator with the two procedures and we compare our results. We find that while General Relativistic Perturbation Theory (GRPT) is able to make predictions of relativistic effects on very large, obviously linear scales (r > 50 Mpc/h), the presence of non-linearities physically occurring on much smaller scales (down to those describing galactic potential wells) can strongly affect the asymmetry estimators. These can lead to cancellations of the relativistic terms, and sign changes in the estimators on scales up to r ~ 50 Mpc/h. On the other hand, with an appropriate non-linear gravitational potential, the results obtained using Newtonian theory can successfully describe the asymmetry on smaller, non-linear scales (r < 20 Mpc/h) where gravitational redshift is the dominant term. On larger scales the asymmetry is much smaller in magnitude, and measurement is not within reach of current observations. This is in agreement with the observational results obtained by Gaztnaga et al. and the first detection of relativistic effects (on (r < 20 Mpc/h) scales) by Alam et al.

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Relativistic distortions in the large-scale clustering of SDSS-III BOSS CMASS galaxies

General relativistic effects have long been predicted to subtly influence the observed large-scale structure of the universe. The current generation of galaxy redshift surveys have reached a size where detection of such effects is becoming feasible. In this paper, we report the first detection of the redshift asymmetry from the cross-correlation function of two galaxy populations which is consistent with relativistic effects. The dataset is taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR12 CMASS galaxy sample, and we detect the asymmetry at the $2.7σ$ level by applying a shell-averaged estimator to the cross-correlation function. Our measurement dominates at scales around $10$ h$^{-1}$Mpc, larger than those over which the gravitational redshift profile has been recently measured in galaxy clusters, but smaller than scales for which linear perturbation theory is likely to be accurate. The detection significance varies by 0.5$σ$ with the details of our measurement and tests for systematic effects. We have also devised two null tests to check for various survey systematics and show that both results are consistent with the null hypothesis. We measure the dipole moment of the cross-correlation function, and from this the asymmetry is also detected, at the $2.8 σ$ level. The amplitude and scale-dependence of the clustering asymmetries are approximately consistent with the expectations of General Relativity and a biased galaxy population, within large uncertainties. We explore theoretical predictions using numerical simulations in a companion paper.

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N-body simulations of gravitational redshifts and other relativistic distortions of galaxy clustering

Large redshift surveys of galaxies and clusters are providing the first opportunities to search for distortions in the observed pattern of large-scale structure due to such effects as gravitational redshift. We focus on non-linear scales and apply a quasi-Newtonian approach using N-body simulations to predict the small asymmetries in the cross-correlation function of two galaxy different populations. Following recent work by Bonvin et al., Zhao and Peacock and Kaiser on galaxy clusters, we include effects which enter at the same order as gravitational redshift: the transverse Doppler effect, light-cone effects, relativistic beaming, luminosity distance perturbation and wide-angle effects. We find that all these effects cause asymmetries in the cross-correlation functions. Quantifying these asymmetries, we find that the total effect is dominated by the gravitational redshift and luminosity distance perturbation at small and large scales, respectively. By adding additional subresolution modelling of galaxy structure to the large-scale structure information, we find that the signal is significantly increased, indicating that structure on the smallest scales is important and should be included. We report on comparison of our simulation results with measurements from the SDSS/BOSS galaxy redshift survey in a companion paper.

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Relativistic Effects on Galaxy Redshift Samples due to Target Selection

In a galaxy redshift survey the objects to be targeted for spectra are selected from a photometrically observed sample. The observed magnitudes and colours of galaxies in this parent sample will be affected by their peculiar velocities, through relativistic Doppler and relativistic beaming effects. In this paper we compute the resulting expected changes in galaxy photometry. The magnitudes of the relativistic effects are a function of redshift, stellar mass, galaxy velocity and velocity direction. We focus on the CMASS sample from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), which is selected on the basis of colour and magnitude. We find that 0.10\% of the sample ($\sim 585$ galaxies) has been scattered into the targeted region of colour-magnitude space by relativistic effects, and conversely 0.09\% of the sample ($\sim 532$ galaxies) has been scattered out. Observational consequences of these effects include an asymmetry in clustering statistics, which we explore in a companion paper. Here we compute a set of weights which can be used to remove the effect of modulations introduced into the density field inferred from a galaxy sample. We conclude by investigating the possible effects of these relativistic modulation on large scale clustering of the galaxy sample.

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The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: On the measurement of growth rate using galaxy correlation functions

We present a measurement of the linear growth rate of structure, \textit{f} from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS III) Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Data Release 12 (DR12) using Convolution Lagrangian Perturbation Theory (CLPT) with Gaussian Streaming Redshift-Space Distortions (GSRSD) to model the two point statistics of BOSS galaxies in DR12. The BOSS-DR12 dataset includes 1,198,006 massive galaxies spread over the redshift range $0.2 < z < 0.75$. These galaxy samples are categorized in three redshift bins. Using CLPT-GSRSD in our analysis of the combined sample of the three redshift bins, we report measurements of $f σ_8$ for the three redshift bins. We find $f σ_8 = 0.430 \pm 0.054$ at $z_{\rm eff} = 0.38$, $f σ_8 = 0.452 \pm 0.057$ at $z_{\rm eff} = 0.51$ and $f σ_8 = 0.457 \pm 0.052$ at $z_{\rm eff} = 0.61$. Our results are consistent with the predictions of Planck $Λ$CDM-GR. Our constraints on the growth rates of structure in the Universe at different redshifts serve as a useful probe, which can help distinguish between a model of the Universe based on dark energy and models based on modified theories of gravity. This paper is part of a set that analyses the final galaxy clustering dataset from BOSS. The measurements and likelihoods presented here are combined with others in Alam et al. 2016 to produce the final cosmological constraints from BOSS.

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The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: tomographic BAO analysis of DR12 combined sample in configuration space

We perform a tomographic baryon acoustic oscillations analysis using the two-point galaxy correlation function measured from the combined sample of BOSS DR12, which covers the redshift range of $0.2<z<0.75$. Splitting the sample into multiple overlapping redshift slices to extract the redshift information of galaxy clustering, we obtain a measurement of $D_A(z)/r_d$ and $H(z)r_d$ at nine effective redshifts with the full covariance matrix calibrated using MultiDark-Patchy mock catalogues. Using the reconstructed galaxy catalogues, we obtain the precision of $1.3\%-2.2\%$ for $D_A(z)/r_d$ and $2.1\%-6.0\%$ for $H(z)r_d$. To quantify the gain from the tomographic information, we compare the constraints on the cosmological parameters using our 9-bin BAO measurements, the consensus 3-bin BAO and RSD measurements at three effective redshifts in \citet{Alam2016}, and the non-tomographic (1-bin) BAO measurement at a single effective redshift. Comparing the 9-bin with 1-bin constraint result, it can improve the dark energy Figure of Merit by a factor of 1.24 for the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder parametrisation for equation of state parameter $w_{\rm DE}$. The errors of $w_0$ and $w_a$ from 9-bin constraints are slightly improved when compared to the 3-bin constraint result.

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