Search for primordial non-Gaussianity in the quasars of SDSS-III BOSS DR9

Abstract

We analyse the clustering of 22,361 quasars between redshift 2.2 < z < 2.9 observed with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), which are included in the ninth data release (DR9). We fit the clustering results with a ΛCDM model to calculate the linear bias of the quasar sample, b=3.74\pm 0.12. The measured value of bias is consistent with the findings of White et al. (2012), where they analyse almost the same quasar sample, although only in the range, s<40 Mpc/h. At large scales we observe an excess or plateau in the clustering correlation function. By fitting a model that incorporates a scale dependent additional term in the bias introduced by primordial non-Gaussianity of the local type, we calculate the amplitude of the deviation from the Gaussian initial conditions as 70<f_NL< 190 at the 95% confidence level. We correct the sample from systematics according to the methods of Ross et al. (2011); Ho et al. (2012) and Ross et al. (2011,2012b), with the f_NL measurements after the application of the two methods being consistent with each other. Finally we use cross-correlations across redshift slices to test the corrected sample for any remaining unknown sources of systematics, but the results give no indication of any such further errors. We consider as our final results on non-Gaussianity of the local type, 46<f_NL< 158 at 95% confidence, after correcting the sample with the weights method of Ross et al. (2011, 2012b). These results are consistent with previous tight constraints on non-Gaussianity from other LSS surveys, but are in tension with the latest results from the CMB.

19 pages, 15 figures, to be published in MNRAS

References in corpus (19)

• Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Interpretation
• The 2.5 m Telescope of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The imprints of primordial non-gaussianities on large-scale structure: scale dependent bias and abundance of virialized objects
• Clustering of High Redshift ($z\ge 2.9$) Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Correlation of CMB with large-scale structure: I. ISW Tomography and Cosmological Implications
• Effects of Scale-Dependent Non-Gaussianity on Cosmological Structures
• Think Outside the Color Box: Probabilistic Target Selection and the SDSS-XDQSO Quasar Targeting Catalog
• The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: The LRG 2-Point Correlation Function and Redshift-Space Distortions
• Optimal limits on f_{NL}^{local} from WMAP 5-year data
• Primordial non-gaussianity, statistics of collapsed objects, and the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect
• Methods for Rapidly Processing Angular Masks of Next-Generation Galaxy Surveys
• Primordial non-Gaussianity: large-scale structure signature in the perturbative bias model
• Limits on f_NL parameters from WMAP 3yr data
• The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: The spectroscopic QSO catalogue
• Primordial Non-Gaussianity and the NRAO VLA Sky Survey
• Constraining Primordial Non-Gaussianity with High-Redshift Probes
• Evolution of the Clustering of Photometrically Selected SDSS Galaxies
• Using Cross-Correlations to Calibrate Lensing Source Redshift Distributions: Improving Cosmological Constraints from Upcoming Weak Lensing Surveys
• An Improved Photometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging Data

Cited by in corpus (23)

• 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
• Clustering of intermediate redshift quasars using the final SDSS III-BOSS sample
• Constraining Primordial non-Gaussianity with Bispectrum and Power Spectum from Upcoming Optical and Radio Surveys
• Redshift-weighted constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity from the clustering of the eBOSS DR14 quasars in Fourier space
• Galaxy bispectrum, primordial non-Gaussianity and redshift space distortions
• Primordial Non-Gaussianity from Biased Tracers: Likelihood Analysis of Real-Space Power Spectrum and Bispectrum
• A 14 $h^{-3}$ Gpc${}^3$ study of cosmic homogeneity using BOSS DR12 quasar sample
• Sloan Digital Sky Survey III Photometric Quasar Clustering: Probing the Initial Conditions of the Universe using the Largest Volume
• Exploiting the full potential of photometric quasar surveys: Optimal power spectra through blind mitigation of systematics
• Forecasts on Primordial non-Gaussianity from 21 cm Intensity Mapping experiments
• The Hunt for Primordial Interactions in the Large Scale Structures of the Universe
• Primordial non-Gaussianity from the Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey I: Catalogue Preparation and Systematic Mitigation
• Using Large Scale Structure to test Multifield Inflation
• Bayesian field-level inference of primordial non-Gaussianity using next-generation galaxy surveys
• Constraining the initial conditions of the Universe using large scale structure
• Non-local bias in the halo bispectrum with primordial non-Gaussianity
• Testing the homogeneity of the Universe using gamma-ray bursts
• Probing primordial non-Gaussianity with the power spectrum and bispectrum of future 21cm intensity maps
• A brief review on cosmological analysis of galaxy surveys with multiple tracers
• Statistics of a single sky: constrained random fields and the imprint of Bardeen potentials on galaxy clustering
• Constraints on Running of Non-Gaussianity from Large Scale Structure Probes
• Two-point statistics without bins: A continuous-function generalization of the correlation function estimator for large-scale structure
• Higher moments of primordial non-Gaussianity and N-body simulations