Skip to main content

SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 12: galaxy target selection and large-scale structure catalogues

Author(s): Reid, Beth; Ho, Shirley; Padmanabhan, Nikhil; Percival, Will J; Tinker, Jeremy; et al

Download
To refer to this page use: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/pr11z41s7h
Abstract: The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) III project, has provided the largest survey of galaxy redshifts available to date, in terms of both the number of galaxy redshifts measured by a single survey, and the effective cosmological volume covered. Key to analysing the clustering of these data to provide cosmological measurements is understanding the detailed properties of this sample. Potential issues include variations in the target catalogue caused by changes either in the targeting algorithm or properties of the data used, the pattern of spectroscopic observations, the spatial distribution of targets for which redshifts were not obtained, and variations in the target sky density due to observational systematics. We document here the target selection algorithms used to create the galaxy samples that comprise BOSS. We also present the algorithms used to create large-scale structure catalogues for the final Data Release (DR12) samples and the associated random catalogues that quantify the survey mask. The algorithms are an evolution of those used by the BOSS team to construct catalogues from earlier data, and have been designed to accurately quantify the galaxy sample. The code used, designated MKSAMPLE, is released with this paper.
Publication Date: 17-Nov-2015
Electronic Publication Date: 11-Jan-2016
Citation: Reid, Beth, Ho, Shirley, Padmanabhan, Nikhil, Percival, Will J, Tinker, Jeremy, Tojeiro, Rita, White, Martin, Eisenstein, Daniel J, Maraston, Claudia, Ross, Ashley J, Sánchez, Ariel G, Schlegel, David, Sheldon, Erin, Strauss, Michael A, Thomas, Daniel, Wake, David, Beutler, Florian, Bizyaev, Dmitry, Bolton, Adam S, Brownstein, Joel R, Chuang, Chia-Hsun, Dawson, Kyle, Harding, Paul, Kitaura, Francisco-Shu, Leauthaud, Alexie, Masters, Karen, McBride, Cameron K, More, Surhud, Olmstead, Matthew D, Oravetz, Daniel, Nuza, Sebastián E, Pan, Kaike, Parejko, John, Pforr, Janine, Prada, Francisco, Rodríguez-Torres, Sergio, Salazar-Albornoz, Salvador, Samushia, Lado, Schneider, Donald P, Scóccola, Claudia G, Simmons, Audrey, Vargas-Magana, Mariana. (2016). SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 12: galaxy target selection and large-scale structure catalogues. \mnras, 455 (1553 - 1573. doi:10.1093/mnras/stv2382
DOI: doi:10.1093/mnras/stv2382
Pages: 1553 - 1573
Type of Material: Journal Article
Journal/Proceeding Title: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Version: Final published version. Article is made available in OAR by the publisher's permission or policy.



Items in OAR@Princeton are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.