MEAN-FLUX-REGULATED PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS CONTINUUM FITTING OF SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY Ly{alpha} FOREST SPECTRA
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States)
- E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
Continuum fitting is an important aspect of Ly{alpha} forest science, since errors in the derived optical depths scale with the fractional continuum error. However, traditional methods of estimating continua in noisy and moderate-resolution spectra (e.g., Sloan Digital Sky Survey, SDSS; S/N {approx}< 10 pixel{sup -1} and R {approx} 2000), such as power-law extrapolation or dividing by the mean spectrum, achieve no better than {approx}15% rms accuracy. To improve on this, we introduce mean-flux-regulated principal component analysis (MF-PCA) continuum fitting. In this technique, PCA fitting is carried out redward of the quasar Ly{alpha} line in order to provide a prediction for the shape of the Ly{alpha} forest continuum. The slope and amplitude of this continuum prediction is then corrected using external constraints for the Ly{alpha} forest mean flux. This requires prior knowledge of the mean flux, (F), but significantly improves the accuracy of the flux transmission, F {identical_to} exp (- {tau}), estimated from each pixel. From tests on mock spectra, we find that MF-PCA reduces the errors to 8% rms in S/N {approx} 2 spectra, and <5% rms in spectra with S/N {approx}> 5. The residual Fourier power in the continuum is decreased by a factor of a few in comparison with dividing by the mean continuum, enabling Ly{alpha} flux power spectrum measurements to be extended to {approx}2 Multiplication-Sign larger scales. Using this new technique, we make available continuum fits for 12,069 z > 2.3 Ly{alpha} forest spectra from SDSS Data Release 7 for use by the community. This technique is also applicable to future releases of the ongoing Baryon Oscillations Spectroscopic Survey, which obtains spectra for {approx}150, 000 Ly{alpha} forest spectra at low signal-to-noise (S/N {approx} 2).
- OSTI ID:
- 22034707
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 143, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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