No Arabic abstract
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) surveyed 14,555 square degrees, and delivered over a trillion pixels of imaging data. We present a study of galaxy clustering using 900,000 luminous galaxies with photometric redshifts, spanning between $z=0.45$ and $z=0.65$, constructed from the SDSS using methods described in Ross et al. (2011). This data-set spans 11,000 square degrees and probes a volume of $3h^{-3} rm{Gpc}^3$, making it the largest volume ever used for galaxy clustering measurements. We present a novel treatment of the observational systematics and its applications to the clustering signals from the data set. In this paper, we measure the angular clustering using an optimal quadratic estimator at 4 redshift slices with an accuracy of ~15% with bin size of delta_l = 10 on scales of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) (at l~40-400). We derive cosmological constraints using the full-shape of the power-spectra. For a flat Lambda CDM model, when combined with Cosmic Microwave Background Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 7 (WMAP7) and H_0 constraints from 600 Cepheids observed by HST, we find Omega_Lambda = 0.73 +/- 0.019 and H_0 to be 70.5 +/- 1.6 km/s/Mpc. For an open Lambda CDM model, when combined with WMAP7 + HST, we find $Omega_K = 0.0035 +/- 0.0054, improved over WMAP7+HST alone by 40%. For a wCDM model, when combined with WMAP7+HST+SN, we find w = -1.071 +/- 0.078, and H_0 to be 71.3 +/- 1.7 km/s/Mpc, which is competitive with the latest large scale structure constraints from large spectroscopic surveys such as SDSS Data Release 7 (DR7) (Reid et al. 2010, Percival et al. 2010, Montesano et al. 2011) and WiggleZ (Blake et al. 2011). The SDSS-III Data Release 8 (SDSS-III DR8) Angular Clustering Data allows a wide range of investigations into the cosmological model, cosmic expansion (via BAO), Gaussianity of initial conditions and neutrino masses. (abridged)
We present the power spectrum of the reconstructed halo density field derived from a sample of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Seventh Data Release (DR7). The halo power spectrum has a direct connection to the underlying dark matter power for k <= 0.2 h/Mpc, well into the quasi-linear regime. This enables us to use a factor of ~8 more modes in the cosmological analysis than an analysis with kmax = 0.1 h/Mpc, as was adopted in the SDSS team analysis of the DR4 LRG sample (Tegmark et al. 2006). The observed halo power spectrum for 0.02 < k < 0.2 h/Mpc is well-fit by our model: chi^2 = 39.6 for 40 degrees of freedom for the best fit LCDM model. We find Omega_m h^2 * (n_s/0.96)^0.13 = 0.141^{+0.009}_{-0.012} for a power law primordial power spectrum with spectral index n_s and Omega_b h^2 = 0.02265 fixed, consistent with CMB measurements. The halo power spectrum also constrains the ratio of the comoving sound horizon at the baryon-drag epoch to an effective distance to z=0.35: r_s/D_V(0.35) = 0.1097^{+0.0039}_{-0.0042}. Combining the halo power spectrum measurement with the WMAP 5 year results, for the flat LCDM model we find Omega_m = 0.289 +/- 0.019 and H_0 = 69.4 +/- 1.6 km/s/Mpc. Allowing for massive neutrinos in LCDM, we find sum m_{ u} < 0.62 eV at the 95% confidence level. If we instead consider the effective number of relativistic species Neff as a free parameter, we find Neff = 4.8^{+1.8}_{-1.7}. Combining also with the Kowalski et al. (2008) supernova sample, we find Omega_{tot} = 1.011 +/- 0.009 and w = -0.99 +/- 0.11 for an open cosmology with constant dark energy equation of state w.
We present the 3D real space clustering power spectrum of a sample of ~600,000 luminous red galaxies (LRGs) measured by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), using photometric redshifts. This sample of galaxies ranges from redshift z=0.2 to 0.6 over 3,528 deg^2 of the sky, probing a volume of 1.5 (Gpc/h)^3, making it the largest volume ever used for galaxy clustering measurements. We measure the angular clustering power spectrum in eight redshift slices and combine these into a high precision 3D real space power spectrum from k=0.005 (h/Mpc) to k=1 (h/Mpc). We detect power on gigaparsec scales, beyond the turnover in the matter power spectrum, on scales significantly larger than those accessible to current spectroscopic redshift surveys. We also find evidence for baryonic oscillations, both in the power spectrum, as well as in fits to the baryon density, at a 2.5 sigma confidence level. The statistical power of these data to constrain cosmology is ~1.7 times better than previous clustering analyses. Varying the matter density and baryon fraction, we find Omega_M = 0.30 pm 0.03, and Omega_b/Omega_M = 0.18 pm 0.04, The detection of baryonic oscillations also allows us to measure the comoving distance to z=0.5; we find a best fit distance of 1.73 pm 0.12 Gpc, corresponding to a 6.5% error on the distance. These results demonstrate the ability to make precise clustering measurements with photometric surveys (abridged).
A new determination of the sound horizon scale in angular coordinates is presented. It makes use of ~ 0.6 x 10^6 Luminous Red Galaxies, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging data, with photometric redshifts. The analysis covers a redshift interval that goes from z=0.5 to z=0.6. We find evidence of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) signal at the ~ 2.3 sigma confidence level, with a value of theta_{BAO} (z=0.55) = (3.90 pm 0.38) degrees, including systematic errors. To our understanding, this is the first direct measurement of the angular BAO scale in the galaxy distribution, and it is in agreement with previous BAO measurements. We also show how radial determinations of the BAO scale can break the degeneracy in the measurement of cosmological parameters when they are combined with BAO angular measurements. The result is also in good agreement with the WMAP7 best-fit cosmology. We obtain a value of w_0 = -1.03 pm 0.16 for the equation of state parameter of the dark energy, Omega_M = 0.26 pm 0.04 for the matter density, when the other parameters are fixed. We have also tested the sensitivity of current BAO measurements to a time varying dark energy equation of state, finding w_a = 0.06 pm 0.22 if we fix all the other parameters to the WMAP7 best-fit cosmology.
We present a comprehensive study of the evolution of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) in the latest and final spectroscopic data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We test the scenario of passive evolution of LRGs in 0.15<z<0.5, by looking at the evolution of the number and luminosity density of LRGs, as well as of their clustering. A new weighting scheme is introduced that allows us to keep a large number of galaxies in our sample and put stringent constraints on the growth and merging allowed by the data as a function of galaxy luminosity. Introducing additional luminosity-dependent weighting for our clustering analysis allows us to additionally constrain the nature of the mergers. We find that, in the redshift range probed, the population of LRGs grows in luminosity by 1.5-6 % Gyr^-1 depending on their luminosity. This growth is predominantly happening in objects that reside in the lowest-mass haloes probed by this study, and cannot be explained by satellite accretion into massive LRGs, nor by LRG-LRG merging. We find that the evolution of the brightest objects (with a K+e-corrected M_r,0.1 < -22.8) is consistent with that expected from passive evolution.
Using the photometric redshifts of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), we identify 132,684 clusters in the redshift range of 0.05<z<0.8. Monte Carlo simulations show that the false detection rate is less than 6% for the whole sample. The completeness is more than 95% for clusters with a mass of M_{200}>1.0*10^{14} M_{odot} in the redshift range of 0.05<z<0.42, while clusters of z>0.42 are less complete and have a biased smaller richness than the real one due to incompleteness of member galaxies. We compare our sample with other cluster samples, and find that more than 90% of previously known rich clusters of 0.05<z<0.42 are matched with clusters in our sample. Richer clusters tend to have more luminous brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs). Correlating with X-ray and the Planck data, we show that the cluster richness is closely related to the X-ray luminosity, temperature and Sunyaev-Zeldovich measurements. Comparison of the BCGs with the SDSS luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample shows that 25% of LRGs are BCGs of our clusters and 36% of LRGs are cluster member galaxies. In our cluster sample, 63% of BCGs of r_{petro}<19.5 satisfy the SDSS LRG selection criteria.