The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: baryon acoustic oscillations in the Data Releases 10 and 11 Galaxy samples

Abstract

We present a one per cent measurement of the cosmic distance scale from the detections of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the clustering of galaxies from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. Our results come from the Data Release 11 (DR11) sample, containing nearly one million galaxies and covering approximately 8500 square degrees and the redshift range 0.2 < z < 0.7. We also compare these results with those from the publicly released DR9 and DR10 samples. Assuming a concordance Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmological model, the DR11 sample covers a volume of 13 Gpc3 and is the largest region of the Universe ever surveyed at this density. We measure the correlation function and power spectrum, including density-field reconstruction of the BAO feature. The acoustic features are detected at a significance of over 7σ in both the correlation function and power spectrum. Fitting for the position of the acoustic features measures the distance relative to the sound horizon at the drag epoch, rd, which has a value of rd,fid = 149.28 Mpc in our fiducial cosmology. We find DV = (1264 ± 25 Mpc)(rd/rd,fid) at z = 0.32 and DV = (2056 ± 20 Mpc)(rd/rd,fid) at z = 0.57. At 1.0 per cent, this latter measure is the most precise distance constraint ever obtained from a galaxy survey. Separating the clustering along and transverse to the line of sight yields measurements at z = 0.57 of DA = (1421 ± 20 Mpc)(rd/rd,fid) and H = (96.8 ± 3.4 kms-1 Mpc-1)(rd,fid/rd). Our measurements of the distance scale are in good agreement with previous BAO measurements and with the predictions from cosmic microwave background data for a spatially flat CDM model with a cosmological constant. © 2014 The Author Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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Affiliated Institutions

• University of California, Berkeley US
• Université Paris Cité FR
• University of Wisconsin–Madison US
• Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía ES
• University of Utah US
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory US
• Sorbonne Université FR
• Yale University US
• Aix-Marseille Université FR
• Evgeni Kharadze Georgian National Astrophysical Observatory GE
• University College London GB
• Carnegie Mellon University US
• Universitat de València ES
• The Open University GB
• Drexel University US
• Case Western Reserve University US
• Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe JP
• Sorbonne Paris Cité FR
• CEA Paris-Saclay FR
• Universidad Autónoma de Madrid ES
• Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique FR
• University of California, Irvine US
• Délégation Paris 7 FR
• Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas ES
• Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias ES
• Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian US
• Ilia State University GE
• Pennsylvania State University US
• Korea Institute for Advanced Study KR
• National Astronomical Observatories CN
• Institut de Recherche sur les Lois Fondamentales de l'Univers FR
• Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats ES
• Princeton University US
• Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris FR
• University of California, San Diego US
• Columbia University US
• The Ohio State University US
• New York University US
• University of Washington US
• Universitat de Barcelona ES
• Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics DE
• University of Portsmouth GB
• Whitney Museum of American Art US
• The University of Tokyo JP
• Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives FR
• Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam DE

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