The Target-selection Pipeline for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument

Abstract

In 2021 May, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) began a 5 yr survey of approximately 50 million total extragalactic and Galactic targets. The primary DESI dark-time targets are emission line galaxies (ELGs), luminous red galaxies (LRGs) and quasars (QSOs). In bright time, DESI will focus on two surveys known as the Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) and the Milky Way Survey (MWS). DESI also observes a selection of "secondary" targets for bespoke science goals. This paper gives an overview of the publicly available pipeline (desitarget) used to process targets for DESI observations. Highlights include details of the different DESI survey targeting phases, the targeting ID (TARGETID) used to define unique targets, the bitmasks used to indicate a particular type of target, the data model and structure of DESI targeting files, and examples of how to access and use the desitarget code base. This paper will also describe "supporting" DESI target classes, such as standard stars, sky locations, and random catalogs that mimic the angular selection function of DESI targets. The DESI target selection pipeline is complex and sizable; this paper attempts to summarize the most salient information required to understand and work with DESI targeting data.

arXiv commentAJ, accepted, 27 pages, 4 figures, 10 tables, one of a suite of 8 papers detailing targeting for DESI. Minor textual updates to better match the final, accepted version. Also added two missing co-authors

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• DESI 2024 III: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Galaxies and Quasars
• DESI Bright Galaxy Survey: Final Target Selection, Design, and Validation
• DESI 2024 IV: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from the Lyman Alpha Forest
• The Spectroscopic Data Processing Pipeline for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
• Target Selection and Validation of DESI Quasars
• DESI 2024 VII: Cosmological Constraints from the Full-Shape Modeling of Clustering Measurements
• Target Selection and Validation of DESI Emission Line Galaxies
• Overview of the DESI Milky Way Survey
• The DESI Survey Validation: Results from Visual Inspection of the Quasar Survey Spectra
• DESI 2024 II: Sample Definitions, Characteristics, and Two-point Clustering Statistics
• DESI 2024 V: Full-Shape Galaxy Clustering from Galaxies and Quasars
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• DESI Observations of the Andromeda Galaxy: Revealing the Immigration History of our Nearest Neighbor
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• First Detection of the BAO Signal from Early DESI Data
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• Constraining primordial non-Gaussianity from DESI quasar targets and Planck CMB lensing
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• Value Added Catalog of physical properties of more than 1.3 million galaxies from the DESI Survey
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• Detecting and Characterizing Mg II absorption in DESI Survey Validation Quasar Spectra
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• DESI Complete Calibration of the Color-Redshift Relation (DC3R2): Results from early DESI data
• The DESI One-Percent Survey: Modelling the clustering and halo occupation of all four DESI tracers with Uchuu
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• A Spectroscopic Search for Optical Emission Lines from Dark Matter Decay
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• Cross-correlation between soft X-rays and galaxies A new benchmark for galaxy evolution models
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• AuriDESI: Mock Catalogues for the DESI Milky Way Survey
• The VST ATLAS Quasar Survey I: Catalogue
• Doppler bias: impact of peculiar velocities on color selection and the large scale structure of galaxy surveys
• Model independent variance cancellation in CMB lensing cross-correlations
• Constraining primordial non-Gaussianity from the large scale structure two-point and three-point correlation functions
• Using Elliptical Galaxy Kinematics to Compare of the Strength of Gravity in Cosmological Regions of Differing Gravitational Potential -- A First Look
• DESI Emission-line Galaxies: Clustering Dependence on Stellar Mass and [OII] Luminosity
• 3D Correlations in the Lyman-$\alpha$ Forest from Early DESI Data
• Inference of matter power spectrum at z=0 using DESI DR1 Full-Shape data
• Reconstructing redshift distributions with photometric galaxy clustering
• Toward accurate measurement of property-dependent galaxy clustering: II. Tests of the smoothed density-corrected $V_{\max }$ method
• Confirming HSC strong lens candidates with DESI Spectroscopy. I. Project overview and first results
• Clustering analysis of medium-band selected high-redshift galaxies
• Parity-odd Four-Point Correlation Function from DESI Data Release 1 Luminous Red Galaxy Sample
• Identifying Anomalous DESI Galaxy Spectra with a Variational Autoencoder
• ELUCID-DESI I: A Parallel MPI Implementation of the Initial Condition Solver for Large-Scale Reconstruction Simulations
• Searching for Type Ia Supernovae in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
• Revisiting the equation of state of dark energy from DESI BAO with SNe Ia and CMB