Mock Quasar-Lyman-α Forest Data-sets for the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

Abstract

We describe mock data-sets generated to simulate the high-redshift quasar sample in Data Release 11 (DR11) of the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). The mock spectra contain Lyα forest correlations useful for studying the 3D correlation function including Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO). They also include astrophysical effects such as quasar continuum diversity and high-density absorbers, instrumental effects such as noise and spectral resolution, as well as imperfections introduced by the SDSS pipeline treatment of the raw data. The Lyα forest BAO analysis of the BOSS collaboration, described in Delubac et al. 2014, has used these mock data-sets to develop and cross-check analysis procedures prior to performing the BAO analysis on real data, and for continued systematic cross checks. Tests presented here show that the simulations reproduce sufficiently well important characteristics of real spectra. These mock data-sets will be made available together with the data at the time of the Data Release 11.

35 pages, 19 figures, Accepted by JCAP

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• Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Ly-α forest of BOSS quasars
• IGM Constraints from the SDSS-III/BOSS DR9 Ly-alpha Forest Flux Probability Distribution Function
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Cited by in corpus (28)

• The SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Overview and Early Data
• Measurement of BAO correlations at $z=2.3$ with SDSS DR12 \lya-Forests
• The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon acoustic oscillations with Lyman-$\alpha$ forests
• Baryon acoustic oscillations from the complete SDSS-III Ly$\alpha$-quasar cross-correlation function at $z=2.4$
• The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation
• The one-dimensional power spectrum from the SDSS DR14 Ly$\alpha$ forests
• Automatic physical inference with information maximising neural networks
• SDSS-IV eBOSS emission-line galaxy pilot survey
• LyaCoLoRe: Synthetic Datasets for Current and Future Lyman-$\alpha$ Forest BAO Surveys
• Modeling the Lyman-alpha Forest in Collisionless Simulations
• The Mean Metal-line Absorption Spectrum of DLAs in BOSS
• The VIMOS Ultra-Deep Survey (VUDS): IGM transmission towards galaxies with 2.5<z<5.5 and the colour selection of high redshift galaxies
• Broadband distortion modeling in Lyman-$\alpha$ forest BAO fitting
• Trend Filtering -- I. A Modern Statistical Tool for Time-Domain Astronomy and Astronomical Spectroscopy
• Quasar Factor Analysis -- An Unsupervised and Probabilistic Quasar Continuum Prediction Algorithm with Latent Factor Analysis
• Mapping Lyman-alpha forest three-dimensional large scale structure in real and redshift space
• Synthetic spectra for Lyman-$\alpha$ forest analysis in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
• Probing the environment of high-z quasars using the proximity effect in projected quasar pairs
• Planting a Lyman alpha forest on AbacusSummit
• The cross-correlation of galaxies in absorption with the Lyman $\alpha$ forest
• Measurement of the small-scale 3D Lyman-$\alpha$ forest power spectrum
• A measurement of the Lyman-beta forest power spectrum and its cross with the Lyman-alpha forest in X-Shooter XQ-100
• The Intergalactic medium transmission towards z>4 galaxies with VANDELS and the impact of dust attenuation
• Metal Lines Associated with the Lyman-alpha Forest from eBOSS Data
• Trend Filtering -- II. Denoising Astronomical Signals with Varying Degrees of Smoothness
• Probing the cosmic web in Ly$\alpha$ emission over large scales: an Intensity Mapping forecast for DECaLS/BASS and DESI
• Reconstructing the Gravitational Lensing Potential from the Lyman-$\alpha$ Forest
• Generation of Lognormal Synthetic Lyman-$\alpha$ Forest Spectra for $P_{1D}$ Analysis