Quasar-Lyman α Forest Cross-Correlation from BOSS DR11 : Baryon Acoustic Oscillations

Andreu Font-Ribera , David Kirkby , N.G. Busca (1) , Jordi Miralda-Escudé , Nicholas P. Ross , Anže Slosar , É. Aubourg (2, 1) , Stephen Bailey , Vaishali Bhardwaj , J.E. Bautista (1) , Florian Beutler , Dmitry Bizyaev , Michael Blomqvist , Howard Brewington , Jon Brinkmann , Joel R. Brownstein , Bill Carithers , Kyle S. Dawson , Timothée Delubac , Garrett Ebelke , Daniel J. Eisenstein , Jian Ge , Karen Kinemuchi , Khee-Gan Lee , Viktor Malanushenko , Elena Malanushenko , Moses Marchante , Daniel Margala , Demitri Muna , Adam D. Myers , Pasquier Noterdaeme , Daniel Oravetz , Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille , Isabelle Pâris , Patrick Petitjean , Matthew M. Pieri , Graziano Rossi , Donald P. Schneider , Audrey Simmons , Matteo Viel , Christophe Yeche , Donald G. York

1 APC (UMR_7164) - AstroParticule et Cosmologie
2 APC - Cosmologie

We measure the large-scale cross-correlation of quasars with the Lyman alpha forest absorption, using over 164,000 quasars from Data Release 11 of the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. We extend the previous study of roughly 60,000 quasars from Data Release 9 to larger separations, allowing a measurement of the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) scale along the line of sight $c/(H(z=2.36) ~ r_s) = 9.0 \pm 0.3$ and across the line of sight $D_A(z=2.36)~ / ~ r_s = 10.8 \pm 0.4$, consistent with CMB and other BAO data. Using the best fit value of the sound horizon from Planck data ($r_s=147.49 Mpc$), we can translate these results to a measurement of the Hubble parameter of $H(z=2.36) = 226 \pm 8 km/s$ and of the angular diameter distance of $D_A(z=2.36) = 1590 \pm 60 Mpc$. The measured cross-correlation function and an update of the code to fit the BAO scale (baofit) are made publicly available.

Domaines: Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO]; Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO]

Andreu Font-Ribera, David Kirkby, N.G. Busca, Jordi Miralda-Escudé, Nicholas P. Ross, et al.. Quasar-Lyman α Forest Cross-Correlation from BOSS DR11 : Baryon Acoustic Oscillations. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2014, 05, pp.027. ⟨10.1088/1475-7516/2014/05/027⟩. ⟨in2p3-00903656⟩