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DOE OSTI2025

Validating the galaxy and quasar catalog-level blinding scheme for the DESI 2024 analysis

In the era of precision cosmology, ensuring the integrity of data analysis through blinding techniques is paramount — a challenge particularly relevant for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). DESI represents a monumental effort to map the cosmic web, with the goal to measure the redshifts of tens of millions of galaxies and quasars. Given the data volume and the impact of the findings, the potential for confirmation bias poses a significant challenge. To address this, we implement and validate a comprehensive blind analysis strategy for DESI Data Release 1 (DR1), tailored to the specific observables DESI is most sensitive to: Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), Redshift-Space Distortion (RSD) and primordial non-Gaussianities (PNG). We carry out the blinding at the catalog level, implementing shifts in the redshifts of the observed galaxies to blind for BAO and RSD signals and weights to blind for PNG through a scale-dependent bias. We validate the blinding technique on mocks as well as on data by applying a second blinding layer to perform a series of sanity checks; the latter allows probing complexities in real data not captured in mocks. We find that the blinding strategy alters the data vector in a controlled way, and the BAO and RSD analysis choices are robust to blinding. The successful validation of the blinding strategy paves the way for the unblinded DESI DR1 analysis, alongside future blind analyses with DESI and other surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Combined tracer analysis for DESI 2024 BAO

This paper demonstrates how the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Data Release 1 (DR1) and future baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) analyses can optimally combine overlapping tracers (galaxies of distinct types) in the same redshift range. We make a unified catalog of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) and Emission Line Galaxies (ELGs) in the redshift range 0.8 < z < 1.1 and investigate the impact on the BAO constraints. DESI DR1 contains ∼ 30% of the final DESI LRG sample and less than 25% of the final ELG sample, and the combination of LRGs and ELGs increases the number density and reduces the shot noise. We developed a pipeline to merge the overlapping tracers using galaxy bias as an approximately optimal weight and tested the pipeline on a suite of Abacus simulations, calibrated on the final version of the DESI Early Data Release. When applying our pipeline to the DESI DR1 catalog, we find an improvement in the BAO constraints of 11% for α iso and ∼ 7.0% for α AP consistent with our findings in mock catalogs. Our analysis was integrated into the DESI DR1 BAO analysis to produce theLRG+ELG result in the 0.8 < z < 1.1 redshift bin, which provided the most precise BAO measurement from DESI DR1 with a 0.86% constraint on the BAO distance scale and a 9.1σ detection of the isotropic BAO feature.

baryon acoustic oscillations↗
DOE OSTI2026

Inference of the linear matter power spectrum at z = 0 using DESI DR1 Full-Shape data

Measurements of galaxy distributions at large cosmic distances capture clustering from the past. In this study, we use a cosmological model to translate these observations into the present-day galaxy distribution. Specifically, we reconstruct the 3D linear matter power spectrum at redshift z = 0 using Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Year 1 (DR1) galaxy clustering data and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations, assuming the ΛCDM model, and compare it to the result assuming the w 0 w a CDM model. Building on previous state-of-the-art methods, we apply Effective Field Theory (EFT) modelling of the galaxy power spectrum to account for small-scale effects in the 2-point statistics of galaxy data. Implementation of the EFT approach improves the modelling of the galaxy power spectrum, providing a more robust consistency test of the assumed cosmological model. By casting both CMB and galaxy clustering observations, spanning distinct redshift regimes, into k-space, we can identify discrepancies between the datasets of different redshifts, which would indicate potential inaccuracies in the assumed expansion history. While previous studies have shown consistency with ΛCDM, this work extends the analysis with higher-quality data to further test the expansion histories of both ΛCDM and w 0 w a CDM. Our findings show that both ΛCDM and w 0 w a CDM provide consistent fits to the linear matter power spectrum recovered from DESI DR1 data.

cosmological parameters from LSS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Extensive analysis of reconstruction algorithms for DESI 2024 baryon acoustic oscillations

Reconstruction of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) signal has been a standard procedure in BAO analyses over the past decade and has helped to improve the BAO parameter precision by a factor of ∼2 on average. The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) BAO analysis for the first year (DR1) data uses the “standard” reconstruction framework, in which the displacement field is estimated from the observed density field by solving the linearized continuity equation in redshift space, and galaxy and random positions are shifted in order to partially remove non-linearities. There are several approaches to solving for the displacement field in real survey data, including the multigrid (MG), iterative Fast Fourier Transform (iFFT), and iterative Fast Fourier Transform particle (iFFTP) algorithms. In this work, we analyze these algorithms and compare them with various metrics including two-point statistics and the displacement itself using realistic DESI mocks. We focus on three representative DESI samples, the emission line galaxies (ELG), quasars (QSO), and the bright galaxy sample (BGS), which cover the extreme redshifts and number densities, and potential wide-angle effects. We conclude that the MG and iFFT algorithms agree within 0.4% in post-reconstruction power spectrum on BAO scales with the RecSym convention, which does not remove large-scale redshift space distortions (RSDs), in all three tracers. The RecSym convention appears to be less sensitive to displacement errors than the RecIso convention, which attempts to remove large-scale RSDs. However, iFFTP deviates from the first two; thus, we recommend against using iFFTP without further development. In addition, we provide the optimal settings for reconstruction for five years of DESI observation. The analyses presented in this work pave the way for DESI DR1 analysis as well as future BAO analyses.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Studying Type II supernovae as cosmological standard candles using the Dark Energy Survey

ABSTRACT Despite vast improvements in the measurement of the cosmological parameters, the nature of dark energy and an accurate value of the Hubble constant (H0) in the Hubble–Lemaître law remain unknown. To break the current impasse, it is necessary to develop as many independent techniques as possible, such as the use of Type II supernovae (SNe II). The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the utility of SNe II for deriving accurate extragalactic distances, which will be an asset for the next generation of telescopes where more-distant SNe II will be discovered. More specifically, we present a sample from the Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program (DES-SN) consisting of 15 SNe II with photometric and spectroscopic information spanning a redshift range up to 0.35. Combining our DES SNe with publicly available samples, and using the standard candle method (SCM), we construct the largest available Hubble diagram with SNe II in the Hubble flow (70 SNe II) and find an observed dispersion of 0.27 mag. We demonstrate that adding a colour term to the SN II standardization does not reduce the scatter in the Hubble diagram. Although SNe II are viable as distance indicators, this work points out important issues for improving their utility as independent extragalactic beacons: find new correlations, define a more standard subclass of SNe II, construct new SN II templates, and dedicate more observing time to high-redshift SNe II. Finally, for the first time, we perform simulations to estimate the redshift-dependent distance-modulus bias due to selection effects.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

The completed SDSS-IV extended baryon oscillation spectroscopic survey: pairwise-inverse probability and angular correction for fibre collisions in clustering measurements

ABSTRACT The completed extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) catalogues contain redshifts of 344 080 quasars at 0.8 < z < 2.2, 174 816 luminous red galaxies between 0.6 < z < 1.0, and 173 736 emission-line galaxies over 0.6 < z < 1.1 in order to constrain the expansion history of the Universe and the growth rate of structure through clustering measurements. Mechanical limitations of the fibre-fed spectrograph on the Sloan telescope prevent two fibres being placed closer than 62 arcsec in a single pass of the instrument. These ‘fibre collisions’ strongly correlate with the intrinsic clustering of targets and can bias measurements of the two-point correlation function resulting in a systematic error on the inferred values of the cosmological parameters. We combine the new techniques of pairwise-inverse probability and the angular upweighting (PIP+ANG) to correct the clustering measurements for the effect of fibre collisions. Using mock catalogues, we show that our corrections provide unbiased measurements, within data precision, of both the projected $\rm {\mathit{ w}_p}\left(\mathit{ r}_p\right)$ and the redshift-space multipole ξ(ℓ = 0, 2, 4)(s) correlation functions down to $0.1\, h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$, regardless of the tracer type. We apply the corrections to the eBOSS DR16 catalogues. We find that, on scales $s\gtrsim 20\, h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$ for ξℓ, as used to make baryon acoustic oscillation and large-scale redshift-space distortion measurements, approximate methods such as nearest-neighbour upweighting are sufficiently accurate given the statistical errors of the data. Using the PIP method, for the first time for a spectroscopic program of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we are able to successfully access the one-halo term in the clustering measurements down to $\sim 0.1\, h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$ scales. Our results will therefore allow studies that use the small-scale clustering to strengthen the constraints on both cosmological parameters and the halo occupation distribution models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Preliminary clustering properties of the DESI BGS bright targets using DR9 Legacy Imaging Surveys

ABSTRACT We characterize the selection cuts and clustering properties of a magnitude-limited sample of bright galaxies that is part of the Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) using the ninth data release of the Legacy Imaging Surveys (DR9). We describe changes in the DR9 selection compared to the DR8 one and we also compare the DR9 selection in three distinct regions: BASS/MzLS in the north Galactic Cap (NGC), DECaLS in the NGC, and DECaLS in the south Galactic Cap (SGC). We investigate the systematics associated with the selection and assess its completeness by matching the BGS targets with the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. We measure the angular clustering for the overall bright sample (rmag ≤ 19.5) and as function of apparent magnitude and colour. This enables to determine the clustering strength r0 and slope γ by fitting a power-law model that can be used to generate accurate mock catalogues for this tracer. We use a counts-in-cells technique to explore higher order statistics and cross-correlations with external spectroscopic data sets in order to check the evolution of the clustering with redshift and the redshift distribution of the BGS targets using clustering redshifts. While this work validates the properties of the BGS bright targets, the final target selection pipeline and clustering properties of the entire DESI BGS will be fully characterized and validated with the spectroscopic data of Survey Validation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

The KLEVER survey: nitrogen abundances at z ~ 2 and probing the existence of a fundamental nitrogen relation

Here we present a comparison of the nitrogen-to-oxygen ratio (N/O) in 37 high-redshift galaxies at z ~ 2 taken from the KMOS Lensed Emission Lines and VElocity Review (KLEVER) Survey with a comparison sample of local galaxies, taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The KLEVER sample shows only a mild enrichment in N/O of +0.1 dex when compared to local galaxies at a given gas-phase metallicity (O/H), but shows a depletion in N/O of –0.35 dex when compared at a fixed stellar mass (M * ). We find a strong anticorrelation in local galaxies between N/O and SFR in the M * –N/O plane, similar to the anticorrelation between O/H and SFR found in the mass–metallicity relation (MZR). We use this anticorrelation to construct a fundamental nitrogen relation (FNR), analogous to the fundamental metallicity relation (FMR). We find that KLEVER galaxies are consistent with both the FMR and the FNR. This suggests that the depletion of N/O in high-z galaxies when considered at a fixed M * is driven by the redshift evolution of the mass–metallicity relation in combination with a near redshift-invariant N/O–O/H relation. Furthermore, the existence of an fundamental nitrogen relation suggests that the mechanisms governing the fundamental metallicity relation must be probed by not only O/H, but also N/O, suggesting pure-pristine gas inflows are not the primary driver of the FMR, and other properties such as variations in galaxy age and star formation efficiency must be important.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

The DESI Bright Galaxy Survey: Final Target Selection, Design, and Validation

Over the next 5 yr, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will use 10 spectrographs with 5000 fibers on the 4 m Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory to conduct the first Stage IV dark energy galaxy survey. At z < 0.6, the DESI Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) will produce the most detailed map of the universe during the dark-energy-dominated epoch with redshifts of >10 million galaxies spanning 14,000 deg 2 . In this work, we present and validate the final BGS target selection and survey design. From the Legacy Surveys, BGS will target an r < 19.5 mag limited sample (BGS Bright), a fainter 19.5 < r < 20.175 color-selected sample (BGS Faint), and a smaller low-z quasar sample. BGS will observe these targets using exposure times scaled to achieve homogeneous completeness and cover the footprint three times. We use observations from the Survey Validation programs conducted prior to the main survey along with simulations to show that BGS can complete its strategy and make optimal use of "bright" time. BGS targets have stellar contamination <1%, and their densities do not depend strongly on imaging properties. BGS Bright will achieve >80% fiber assignment efficiency. Finally, BGS Bright and BGS Faint will achieve >95% redshift success over any observing condition. BGS meets the requirements for an extensive range of scientific applications. BGS will yield the most precise baryon acoustic oscillation and redshift-space distortion measurements at z < 0.4. It presents opportunities for new methods that require highly complete and dense samples (e.g., N-point statistics, multitracers). BGS further provides a powerful tool to study galaxy populations and the relations between galaxies and dark matter.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Environments of Green Pea Galaxies. I. The KISS Sample

We present environmental analyses for 13 KPNO International Spectroscopic Survey Green Pea (GP) galaxies. These galaxies were discovered via their strong [O ιιι] emission in the redshift range 0.29 < z < 0.42, and they are undergoing a major burst of star formation. A primary goal of this study is to understand what role the environment plays in driving the current star formation activity. By studying the environments around these extreme star-forming galaxies, we can learn more about what triggers their star formation processes and how they fit into the narrative of galaxy evolution. Using the Hydra multifiber spectrograph on the WIYN 3.5 m telescope, we mapped out the galaxy distribution around each of the GPs (out to ~15 Mpc at the redshifts of the targets). Using three density analysis methodologies chosen for their compatibility with the geometry of our redshift survey, we categorized the galaxian densities of the GPs into different density regimes. We find that the GPs in our sample tend to be located in low-density environments. We find no correlation between the density and the SFRs seen in the GPs. We conclude that the environments the GPs are found in are likely not the driving factor behind their extreme star formation activity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Approximating Density Probability Distribution Functions Across Cosmologies

Using a suite of self-similar cosmological simulations, we measure the probability distribution functions (PDFs) of real-space density, redshift-space density, and their geometric mean. We find that the real-space density PDF is well-described by a function of two parameters: ns, the spectral slope, and σL, the linear rms density fluctuation. For redshift-space density and the geometric mean of real- and redshift-space densities, we introduce a third parameter, ${s}_{L}=\sqrt{\langle {\left({{dv}}_{\mathrm{pec}}^{L}/{dr}\right)}^{2}\rangle }/H$. We find that density PDFs for the LCDM cosmology is also well-parameterized by these three parameters. As a result, we are able to use a suite of self-similar cosmological simulations to approximate density PDFs for a range of cosmologies. We make the density PDFs publicly available and provide an analytical fitting formula for them.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

CLEAR: The Ionization and Chemical-enrichment Properties of Galaxies at 1.1 < z < 2.3

We use deep spectroscopy from the Hubble Space Telescope Wide-Field-Camera 3 IR grisms combined with broadband photometry to study the stellar populations, gas ionization and chemical abundances in star-forming galaxies at z ~ 1.1–2.3. The data stem from the CANDELS Lyα Emission At Reionization (CLEAR) survey. At these redshifts, the grism spectroscopy measure the [O II] λλ3727, 3729, [O III]λλ4959, 5008, and Hβ strong emission features, which constrain the ionization parameter and oxygen abundance of the nebular gas. We compare the line-flux measurements to predictions from updated photoionization models (MAPPINGS V; Kewley et al.), which include an updated treatment of nebular gas pressure, $\mathrm{log}P/k={n}_{e}{T}_{e}$. Compared to low-redshift samples (z ~ 0.2) at fixed stellar mass, $\mathrm{log}{M}_{* }/{M}_{\odot }\,=$ 9.4–9.8, the CLEAR galaxies at z = 1.35 (1.90) have lower gas-phase metallicity, ${\rm{\Delta }}(\mathrm{log}Z)$ = 0.25 (0.35) dex, and higher ionization parameters, ${\rm{\Delta }}(\mathrm{log}q)$ = 0.25 (0.35) dex, where U ≡ q/c. We provide updated analytic calibrations between the [O III], [O II], and Hβ emission-line ratios, metallicity, and ionization parameter. The CLEAR galaxies show that at fixed stellar mass, the gas ionization parameter is correlated with the galaxy specific star formation rates, where ${\rm{\Delta }}\mathrm{log}q\simeq 0.4\times {\rm{\Delta }}(\mathrm{log}\,\mathrm{sSFR})$, derived from changes in the strength of galaxy Hβ equivalent width. We interpret this as a consequence of higher gas densities, lower gas covering fractions, combined with a higher escape fraction of H-ionizing photons. We discuss both tests to confirm these assertions and implications this has for future observations of galaxies at higher redshifts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Size and Spectroscopic Evolution of HectoMAP Quiescent Galaxies

Abstract The HectoMAP survey provides a complete, mass-limited sample of 30,231 quiescent galaxies with i -band Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC SSP) imaging that spans the redshift range 0.2 < z < 0.6. We combine half-light radii based on HSC SSP imaging with redshifts and D n 4000 to explore the size–mass relation, R e = A × M * α , and its evolution for the entire HectoMAP quiescent population and for two subsets of the data. Newcomers with 1.5 < D n 4000 < 1.6 at each redshift show a steeper increase in A as the universe ages than the population that descends from galaxies that are already quiescent at the survey limit, z ∼ 0.6 (the resident population). In broad agreement with previous studies, evolution in the size–mass relation both for the entire HectoMAP sample and for the resident population (but not for the newcomers alone) is consistent with minor merger driven growth. For the resident population, the evolution in the size–mass relation is independent of the population age at z ∼ 0.6. The contrast between the sample of newcomers and the resident population provides insight into the role of commonly termed “progenitor bias” on the evolution of the size–mass relation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

HETDEX Public Source Catalog 1: 220 K Sources Including Over 50 K Ly$α$ Emitters from an Untargeted Wide-area Spectroscopic Survey*

We present the first publicly released catalog of sources obtained from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). HETDEX is an integral field spectroscopic survey designed to measure the Hubble expansion parameter and angular diameter distance at 1.88 < z < 3.52 by using the spatial distribution of more than a million Lyα-emitting galaxies over a total target area of 540 deg 2 . The catalog comes from contiguous fiber spectra coverage of 25 deg 2 of sky from 2017 January through 2020 June, where object detection is performed through two complementary detection methods: one designed to search for line emission and the other a search for continuum emission. The HETDEX public release catalog is dominated by emission-line galaxies and includes 51,863 Ly$α$-emitting galaxy (LAE) identifications and 123,891 [O ii]-emitting galaxies at z < 0.5. Also included in the catalog are 37,916 stars, 5274 low-redshift (z < 0.5) galaxies without emission lines, and 4976 active galactic nuclei. The catalog provides sky coordinates, redshifts, line identifications, classification information, line fluxes, [O ii] and Ly$α$ line luminosities where applicable, and spectra for all identified sources processed by the HETDEX detection pipeline. Extensive testing demonstrates that HETDEX redshifts agree to within Δz < 0.02, 96.1% of the time to those in external spectroscopic catalogs. We measure the photometric counterpart fraction in deep ancillary Hyper Suprime-Cam imaging and find that only 55.5% of the LAE sample has an r-band continuum counterpart down to a limiting magnitude of r ~ 26.2 mag (AB) indicating that an LAE search of similar sensitivity to HETDEX with photometric preselection would miss nearly half of the HETDEX LAE catalog sample. Data access and details about the catalog can be found online at http://hetdex.org/. A copy of the catalogs presented in this work (Version 3.2) is available to download at Zenodo doi:10.5281/zenodo.7448504.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Carousel Lens: A Well-modeled Strong Lens with Multiple Sources Spectroscopically Confirmed by VLT/MUSE

Over the past few years alone, the lensing community has discovered thousands of strong lens candidates, and spectroscopically confirmed hundreds of them. In this time of abundance, it becomes pragmatic to focus our time and resources on the few extraordinary systems, in order to most efficiently study the Universe. In this paper, we present such a system: DESI-090.9854-35.9683, a cluster-scale lens at z l = 0.49, with seven observed lensed sources around the core, and additional lensed sources further out in the cluster. From the number and the textbook configuration of the lensed images, a tight constraint on the mass potential of the lens is possible. This would allow for detailed analysis on the dark and luminous matter content within galaxy clusters, as well as a probe into dark energy and high-redshift galaxies. We present our spatially resolved kinematic measurements of this system from the Very Large Telescope Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, which confirm five of these source galaxies (in ascending order, at z s = 0.962, 0.962, 1.166, 1.432, and 1.432). With previous Hubble Space Telescope imaging in the F140W and F200LP bands, we also present a simple flux-based lens model consisting of two power-law profiles that, for a cluster lens, well models the five lensed arc families with redshifts. We determine the mass to be M(< θ E ) = 4.78 × 10 13 M ⊙ for the primary mass potential. From the model, we extrapolate the redshift of one of the two source galaxies not yet spectroscopically confirmed to be at $z_s = 4.52^{+1.03}_{-0.71}$.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

The SPT-Chandra BCG Spectroscopic Survey. I. Evolution of the Entropy Threshold for ICM Cooling and AGN Feedback in Galaxy Clusters over the Last 10 Gyr

Abstract We present a multiwavelength study of the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in a sample of the 95 most massive galaxy clusters selected from the South Pole Telescope Sunyaev–Zeldovich (SZ) survey. Our sample spans a redshift range of 0.3 < z < 1.7, and is complete with optical spectroscopy from various ground-based observatories, as well as ground and space-based imaging from optical, X-ray, and radio wave bands. At z ∼ 0, previous studies have shown a strong correlation between the presence of a low-entropy cool core and the presence of both star formation and radio-loud active galactic nuclei in the central BCG. We show for the first time that the central entropy threshold for triggering star formation, which is universally seen in nearby systems, persists out to z ∼ 1, with only marginal (∼1 σ ) evidence for evolution in the threshold entropy value itself. In contrast, we do not find a similar high- z analog for an entropy threshold for feedback, but instead measure a strong evolution in the fraction of radio-loud BCGs in high-entropy cores, decreasing with increasing redshift. This could imply that the cooling-feedback loop was not as tight in the past, or that some other fuel source like mergers are fueling the radio sources more often with increasing redshift, making the radio luminosity an increasingly unreliable proxy for radio jet power. We also find that our SZ-based sample is missing a small (∼4%) population of the most luminous radio sources ( ν L ν > 10 42 erg s −1 ), likely due to radio contamination suppressing the SZ signal with which these clusters are detected.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

The z ∼ 1.03 Merging Cluster SPT-CL J0356–5337: New Strong Lensing Analysis with HST and MUSE

We present a strong lensing analysis and reconstruct the mass distribution of SPT-CL J0356−5337, a galaxy cluster at redshift z = 1.034. Our model supersedes previous models by making use of new multiband Hubble Space Telescope data and Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) spectroscopy. We identify two additional lensed galaxies to inform a more well-constrained model using 12 sets of multiple images in five separate lensed sources. The three previously known sources were spectroscopically confirmed by G. Mahler et al. at redshifts of z = 2.363, z = 2.364, and z = 3.048. We measured the spectroscopic redshifts of two of the newly discovered arcs using MUSE data, at z = 3.0205 and z = 5.3288. We increase the number of cluster member galaxies by a factor of 3 compared to previous work. We also report the detection of extended Lyα emission from several background galaxies. We measure the total projected mass density of the two major subcluster components, one dominated by the brightest cluster galaxy and the other by a compact group of luminous red galaxies. We find ${M}_{{\rm{B}}{\rm{C}}{\rm{G}}}(\lt 80\,\rm{kpc})=3.9{3}_{-0.14}^{+0.21}\times 1{0}^{13}$ M⊙ and ${M}_{{\rm{LRG}}}(\lt 80\,\rm{kpc})=2.9{2}_{-0.23}^{+0.16}\times 1{0}^{13}$ M⊙, yielding a mass ratio of $1.3{5}_{-0.08}^{+0.16}$ . The strong lensing constraints offer a robust estimate of the projected mass density regardless of modeling assumptions; allowing more substructure in this line of sight does not change the results or conclusions. Our results corroborate the conclusion that SPT-CL J0356−5337 is dominated by two mass components and is likely undergoing a major merger on the plane of the sky.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Southern Photometric Quasar Catalog from the Dark Energy Survey Data Release 2

We present a catalog of 1.4 million photometrically selected quasar candidates in the southern hemisphere over the ~5000 deg 2 Dark Energy Survey (DES) wide survey area. We combine optical photometry from the DES second data release (DR2) with available near-infrared (NIR) and the all-sky unWISE mid-infrared photometry in the selection. We build models of quasars, galaxies, and stars with multivariate skew-t distributions in the multidimensional space of relative fluxes as functions of redshift (or color for stars) and magnitude. Our selection algorithm assigns probabilities for quasars, galaxies, and stars and simultaneously calculates photometric redshifts (photo-z) for quasar and galaxy candidates. Benchmarking on spectroscopically confirmed objects, we successfully classify (with photometry) 94.7% of quasars, 99.3% of galaxies, and 96.3% of stars when all IR bands (NIR YJHK and WISE W1W2) are available. The classification and photo-z regression success rates decrease when fewer bands are available. Our quasar (galaxy) photo-z quality, defined as the fraction of objects with the difference between the photo-z z p and the spectroscopic redshift z s , |Δz| ≡ |z s - z p |/(1 + z s ) ≤ 0.1, is 92.2% (98.1%) when all IR bands are available, decreasing to 72.2% (90.0%) using optical DES data only. Our photometric quasar catalog achieves an estimated completeness of 89% and purity of 79% at r < 21.5 (0.68 million quasar candidates), with reduced completeness and purity at 21.5 < r ≲ 24. Among the 1.4 million quasar candidates, 87,857 have existing spectra, and 84,978 (96.7%) of them are spectroscopically confirmed quasars. Finally, we provide quasar, galaxy, and star probabilities for all (0.69 billion) photometric sources in the DES DR2 coadded photometric catalog.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗