The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: baryon acoustic oscillations in the Data Release 9 spectroscopic galaxy sample

Abstract

We present measurements of galaxy clustering from the Baryon Oscillation\nSpectroscopic Survey (BOSS), which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III\n(SDSS-III). These use the Data Release 9 (DR9) CMASS sample, which contains\n264,283 massive galaxies covering 3275 square degrees with an effective\nredshift z=0.57 and redshift range 0.43 < z < 0.7. Assuming a concordance\nLambda-CDM cosmological model, this sample covers an effective volume of 2.2\nGpc^3, and represents the largest sample of the Universe ever surveyed at this\ndensity, n = 3 x 10^-4 h^-3 Mpc^3. We measure the angle-averaged galaxy\ncorrelation function and power spectrum, including density-field reconstruction\nof the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature. The acoustic features are\ndetected at a significance of 5\\sigma in both the correlation function and\npower spectrum. Combining with the SDSS-II Luminous Red Galaxy Sample, the\ndetection significance increases to 6.7\\sigma. Fitting for the position of the\nacoustic features measures the distance to z=0.57 relative to the sound horizon\nDV /rs = 13.67 +/- 0.22 at z=0.57. Assuming a fiducial sound horizon of 153.19\nMpc, which matches cosmic microwave background constraints, this corresponds to\na distance DV(z=0.57) = 2094 +/- 34 Mpc. At 1.7 per cent, this is the most\nprecise distance constraint ever obtained from a galaxy survey. We place this\nresult alongside previous BAO measurements in a cosmological distance ladder\nand find excellent agreement with the current supernova measurements. We use\nthese distance measurements to constrain various cosmological models, finding\ncontinuing support for a flat Universe with a cosmological constant.\n

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Affiliated Institutions

• University of California, Berkeley US
• Université Paris Cité FR
• Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía ES
• University of Utah US
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory US
• Sorbonne Université FR
• Brookhaven National Laboratory US
• Yale University US
• Evgeni Kharadze Georgian National Astrophysical Observatory GE
• National Observatory BR
• Universitat de València ES
• Carnegie Mellon University US
• Case Western Reserve University US
• Swinburne University of Technology AU
• Universidad de La Laguna ES
• Sorbonne Paris Cité FR
• CEA Paris-Saclay FR
• Universidad Autónoma de Madrid ES
• Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique FR
• University of California, Irvine US
• Délégation Paris 7 FR
• Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas ES
• Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias ES
• Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian US
• Valongo Observatory BR
• University of Arizona US
• Instituto de Física Corpuscular ES
• Ilia State University GE
• Pennsylvania State University US
• National Astronomical Observatories CN
• Institut de Recherche sur les Lois Fondamentales de l'Univers FR
• Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats ES
• Princeton University US
• Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris FR
• The Ohio State University US
• New York University US
• University of Washington US
• Universitat de Barcelona ES
• Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics DE
• University of Portsmouth GB
• Whitney Museum of American Art US
• Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille FR
• Laboratoire AstroParticule et Cosmologie FR
• Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia BR
• Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives FR
• Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam DE

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