Title: The SDSS-IV extended baryon oscillation spectroscopic survey: Luminous red galaxy target selection

Abstract

Here, we describe the algorithm used to select the luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample for the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV) using photometric data from both the SDSS and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. LRG targets are required to meet a set of color selection criteria and have z-band and i-band MODEL magnitudes z < 19.95 and 19.9 < i < 21.8, respectively. Our algorithm selects roughly 50 LRG targets per square degree, the great majority of which lie in the redshift range 0.6 < z < 1.0 (median redshift 0.71). We also demonstrate that our methods are highly effective at eliminating stellar contamination and lower-redshift galaxies. We perform a number of tests using spectroscopic data from SDSS-III/BOSS ancillary programs to determine the redshift reliability of our target selection and its ability to meet the science requirements of eBOSS. The SDSS spectra are of high enough signal-to-noise ratio that at least ~89% of the target sample yields secure redshift measurements. Finally, we present tests of the uniformity and homogeneity of the sample, demonstrating that it should be clean enough for studies of the large-scale structure of the universe at higher redshiftsmore » than SDSS-III/BOSS LRGs reached.« less

Authors:

Prakash, Abhishek  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Prakash, Abhishek"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-4451-4444"

Licquia, Timothy C. ^[1]; Newman, Jeffrey A. ^[1]; Ross, Ashley J. ^[2]; Myers, Adam D. ^[3]; Dawson, Kyle S.  ^[4];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Dawson, Kyle S."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-0553-3805"

Kneib, Jean-Paul ^[5]; Percival, Will J. ^[6]; Bautista, Julian E. ^[4]; Comparat, Johan ^[7]; Tinker, Jeremy L. ^[8]; Schlegel, David J. ^[9]; Tojeiro, Rita ^[10]; Ho, Shirley ^[11]; Lang, Dustin ^[11]; Rao, Sandhya M. ^[1]; McBride, Cameron K. ^[12]; Zhu, Guangtun Ben ^[13]; Brownstein, Joel R. ^[4]; Bailey, Stephen ^[9] more »; Bolton, Adam S. ^[4]; Delubac, Timothée ^[14]; Mariappan, Vivek ^[4]; Blanton, Michael R. ^[8]; Reid, Beth ^[15]; Schneider, Donald P. ^[16]; Seo, Hee-Jong ^[17]; Rosell, Aurelio Carnero  ^[18];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Rosell, Aurelio Carnero"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-3044-5150"

Prada, Francisco ^[19] « less

---

+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
2. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics; Univ. of Portsmouth (United Kingdom). Inst. of Cosmology and Gravitation
3. Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
4. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
5. Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne (Switzlerland). Lab. of Astrophysics; Aix-Marseille Univ., and CNRS/IN2P3, Marseille (France)
6. Univ. of Portsmouth (United Kingdom). Inst. of Cosmology and Gravitation
7. Autonomous Univ. of Madrid (Spain). Inst. of Theoretical Physics
8. New York Univ. (NYU), NY (United States). Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics
9. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
10. School of Physics and Astronomy, St. Andrews (United Kingdom)
11. Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States). Bruce and Astrid McWilliams Center for Cosmology
12. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
13. Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
14. Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne (Switzlerland). Lab. of Astrophysics
15. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics
16. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics
17. Ohio Univ., Athens, OH (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
18. National Observatory and Interinstitutional Lab. of Astronomy, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
19. Autonomous Univ. of Madrid (Spain). Inst. of Theoretical Physics; Campus of International Excellence, Madrid (Spain); Inst. of Astrophysics of Andalucia (CSIC), Granada (Spain)

Publication Date:

Wed Jun 08 00:00:00 EDT 2016

Research Org.:

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)

OSTI Identifier:

1379373

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-05CH11231

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

The Astrophysical Journal. Supplement Series (Online)

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal. Supplement Series (Online); Journal Volume: 224; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4365

Publisher:

American Astronomical Society/IOP

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; catalogs; cosmology: observations; galaxies: distances and redshifts; galaxies: photometery; methods: data analysis; galaxies: general