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Title: How to estimate the 3D power spectrum of the Lyman-α forest

Abstract

We derive and numerically implement an algorithm for estimating the 3D power spectrum of the Lyman-α (Lyα) forest flux fluctuations. The algorithm exploits the unique geometry of Lyα forest data to efficiently measure the cross-spectrum between lines of sight as a function of parallel wavenumber, transverse separation and redshift. We start by approximating the global covariance matrix as block-diagonal, where only pixels from the same spectrum are correlated. We then compute the eigenvectors of the derivative of the signal covariance with respect to cross-spectrum parameters, and project the inverse-covariance-weighted spectra onto them. This acts much like a radial Fourier transform over redshift windows. The resulting cross-spectrum inference is then converted into our final product, an approximation of the likelihood for the 3D power spectrum expressed as second order Taylor expansion around a fiducial model. We demonstrate the accuracy and scalability of the algorithm and comment on possible extensions. Our algorithm will allow efficient analysis of the upcoming Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument dataset.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. College London, Bloomsbury (United Kingdom). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); Univ. College London, Bloomsbury (United Kingdom)
OSTI Identifier:
1424960
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1530316
Report Number(s):
BNL-200052-2018-JAAM
Journal ID: ISSN 1475-7516; TRN: US1801980
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0012704; ST/N003853/1; AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 2018; Journal Issue: 01; Journal ID: ISSN 1475-7516
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

Citation Formats

Font-Ribera, Andreu, McDonald, Patrick, and Slosar, Anže. How to estimate the 3D power spectrum of the Lyman-α forest. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2018/01/003.
Font-Ribera, Andreu, McDonald, Patrick, & Slosar, Anže. How to estimate the 3D power spectrum of the Lyman-α forest. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2018/01/003
Font-Ribera, Andreu, McDonald, Patrick, and Slosar, Anže. Tue . "How to estimate the 3D power spectrum of the Lyman-α forest". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2018/01/003. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1424960.
@article{osti_1424960,
title = {How to estimate the 3D power spectrum of the Lyman-α forest},
author = {Font-Ribera, Andreu and McDonald, Patrick and Slosar, Anže},
abstractNote = {We derive and numerically implement an algorithm for estimating the 3D power spectrum of the Lyman-α (Lyα) forest flux fluctuations. The algorithm exploits the unique geometry of Lyα forest data to efficiently measure the cross-spectrum between lines of sight as a function of parallel wavenumber, transverse separation and redshift. We start by approximating the global covariance matrix as block-diagonal, where only pixels from the same spectrum are correlated. We then compute the eigenvectors of the derivative of the signal covariance with respect to cross-spectrum parameters, and project the inverse-covariance-weighted spectra onto them. This acts much like a radial Fourier transform over redshift windows. The resulting cross-spectrum inference is then converted into our final product, an approximation of the likelihood for the 3D power spectrum expressed as second order Taylor expansion around a fiducial model. We demonstrate the accuracy and scalability of the algorithm and comment on possible extensions. Our algorithm will allow efficient analysis of the upcoming Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument dataset.},
doi = {10.1088/1475-7516/2018/01/003},
journal = {Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics},
number = 01,
volume = 2018,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jan 02 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Tue Jan 02 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}

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Cited by: 11 works
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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1. FIG. 1.: S̃,α matrices for two different parameters. Left: eighth k-bin (k = 0.0015s km −1) of the second z-bin (z = 2.15); Right: first non-zero k-bin (k = 0.0002s km −1) of the fifth z-bin (z = 2.88). The redshift bin (z-bin) of the parameter sets the diagonal bandmore » that is non-zero, and the wavenumber bin (k-bin) sets the oscillation frequency.« less

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Impact of inhomogeneous reionization on the Lyman-α forest
journal, May 2019

  • Montero-Camacho, Paulo; Hirata, Christopher M.; Martini, Paul
  • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 487, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz1388

Improved renormalization group computation of likelihood functions for cosmological data sets
journal, August 2019