The BOSS Lyα Forest Sample from SDSS Data Release 9
Khee-Gan Lee
,
Stephen Bailey
,
Leslie E. Bartsch
,
William Carithers
,
Kyle S. Dawson
,
David Kirkby
,
Britt Lundgren
,
Daniel Margala
,
Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille
,
Matthew M. Pieri
,
David J. Schlegel
,
David H. Weinberg
,
Christophe Yèche
,
É. Aubourg
(1, 2)
,
J.E. Bautista
(1, 2)
,
Dmitry Bizyaev
,
Michael Blomqvist
,
Adam S. Bolton
,
Arnaud Borde
,
Howard Brewington
,
N.G. Busca
(2)
,
Rupert A. C. Croft
,
Timothée Delubac
,
Garrett Ebelke
,
Daniel J. Eisenstein
,
Andreu Font-Ribera
,
Jian Ge
,
J.-C. Hamilton
(2)
,
Joseph F. Hennawi
,
Shirley Ho
,
Klaus Honscheid
,
Jean-Marc Le Goff
,
Elena Malanushenko
,
Viktor Malanushenko
,
Jordi Miralda-Escudé
,
Adam D. Myers
,
Pasquier Noterdaeme
,
Daniel Oravetz
,
Kaike Pan
,
Isabelle Pâris
,
Patrick Petitjean
,
James Rich
,
Emmanuel Rollinde
,
Nicholas P. Ross
,
Graziano Rossi
,
Donald P. Schneider
,
Audrey Simmons
,
Stephanie Snedden
,
Anže Slosar
,
David N. Spergel
,
Nao Suzuki
,
Matteo Viel
,
Benjamin A. Weaver
Khee-Gan Lee
- Function : Author
Stephen Bailey
- Function : Author
Leslie E. Bartsch
- Function : Author
William Carithers
- Function : Author
Kyle S. Dawson
- Function : Author
David Kirkby
- Function : Author
Britt Lundgren
- Function : Author
Daniel Margala
- Function : Author
Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille
- Function : Author
Matthew M. Pieri
- Function : Author
David J. Schlegel
- Function : Author
David H. Weinberg
- Function : Author
Christophe Yèche
- Function : Author
Dmitry Bizyaev
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 765523
- ORCID : 0000-0002-3601-133X
Michael Blomqvist
- Function : Author
Adam S. Bolton
- Function : Author
Arnaud Borde
- Function : Author
Howard Brewington
- Function : Author
Rupert A. C. Croft
- Function : Author
Timothée Delubac
- Function : Author
Garrett Ebelke
- Function : Author
Daniel J. Eisenstein
- Function : Author
Andreu Font-Ribera
- Function : Author
Jian Ge
- Function : Author
J.-C. Hamilton
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 741425
- IdHAL : jean-christophe-hamilton
- ORCID : 0000-0002-7820-8405
- IdRef : 116048670
Joseph F. Hennawi
- Function : Author
Shirley Ho
- Function : Author
Klaus Honscheid
- Function : Author
Jean-Marc Le Goff
- Function : Author
Elena Malanushenko
- Function : Author
Viktor Malanushenko
- Function : Author
Jordi Miralda-Escudé
- Function : Author
Adam D. Myers
- Function : Author
Pasquier Noterdaeme
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 739467
- IdHAL : pasquier-noterdaeme
- ORCID : 0000-0002-5777-1629
- IdRef : 136484999
Daniel Oravetz
- Function : Author
Kaike Pan
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 765528
- ORCID : 0000-0002-2835-2556
Isabelle Pâris
- Function : Author
Patrick Petitjean
- Function : Author
James Rich
- Function : Author
Emmanuel Rollinde
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 173472
- IdHAL : emmanuel-rollinde
- ORCID : 0000-0002-6167-5621
- IdRef : 077190467
Nicholas P. Ross
- Function : Author
Graziano Rossi
- Function : Author
Donald P. Schneider
- Function : Author
Audrey Simmons
- Function : Author
Stephanie Snedden
- Function : Author
Anže Slosar
- Function : Author
David N. Spergel
- Function : Author
Nao Suzuki
- Function : Author
Matteo Viel
- Function : Author
Benjamin A. Weaver
- Function : Author
Abstract
We present the BOSS Lyman-α (Lyα) Forest Sample from SDSS Data Release 9, comprising 54,468 quasar spectra with z qso > 2.15 suitable for Lyα forest analysis. This data set probes the intergalactic medium with absorption redshifts 2.0 < z α < 5.7 over an area of 3275 deg2, and encompasses an approximate comoving volume of 20 h -3 Gpc3. With each spectrum, we have included several products designed to aid in Lyα forest analysis: improved sky masks that flag pixels where data may be unreliable, corrections for known biases in the pipeline estimated noise, masks for the cores of damped Lyα systems and corrections for their wings, and estimates of the unabsorbed continua so that the observed flux can be converted to a fractional transmission. The continua are derived using a principal component fit to the quasar spectrum redward of rest-frame Lyα (λ > 1216 Å), extrapolated into the forest region and normalized by a linear function to fit the expected evolution of the Lyα forest mean flux. The estimated continuum errors are <~ 5% rms. We also discuss possible systematics arising from uncertain spectrophotometry and artifacts in the flux calibration; global corrections for the latter are provided. Our sample provides a convenient starting point for users to analyze clustering in BOSS Lyα forest data, and it provides a fiducial data set that can be used to compare results from different analyses of baryon acoustic oscillations in the Lyα forest. The full data set is available from the SDSS-III DR9 Web site.