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    Dark Energy Survey Year 6 results: Clustering redshifts and importance sampling of self-organized-maps n(z) realizations for 3×2pt samples

    W. d’Assignies1,*, G. M. Bernstein2, B. Yin3, G. Giannini4,5, A. Alarcon6, M. Manera1,7, C. To4, M. Yamamoto3,8, N. Weaverdyck9,10 et al. (DES Collaboration)

    N. Weaverdyck9,10, R. Cawthon11, M. Gatti5, A. Amon8, D. Anbajagane5, S. Avila12, M. R. Becker13, K. Bechtol14, C. Chang4,5, M. Crocce6,15, J. De Vicente12, S. Dodelson4,5,16, J. Fang17, A. Ferté18, D. Gruen19, E. Legnani1, A. Porredon20,21, J. Prat4,22, M. Rodriguez-Monroy23,24, C. Sánchez1,25, T. Schutt18,26,27, I. Sevilla-Noarbe21, D. Sanchez Cid21,28, M. A. Troxel3, T. M. C. Abbott29, F. Andrade-Oliveira28, M. Aguena30,31, O. Alves32, D. Bacon33, J. Blazek34, S. Bocquet19, D. Brooks35, R. Camilleri36, A. Carnero Rosell30,37,38, M. Carrasco Kind39,40, J. Carretero1, F. J. Castander5,6,15, L. N. da Costa30, M. E. da Silva Pereira41, T. M. Davis36, S. Desai42, P. Doel35, C. Doux43,2, A. Drlica-Wagner4,5,16, T. Eifler44,45, J. Elvin-Poole46, S. Everett47, B. Flaugher16, P. Fosalba6,15, J. Frieman4,5,16, J. García-Bellido48, E. Gaztanaga6,15,33, P. Giles49, G. Gutierrez16, S. R. Hinton36, D. L. Hollowood50, K. Honscheid51,52, D. Huterer32, B. Jain2, D. J. James53, K. Kuehn54,55, O. Lahav35, S. Lee45, J. L. Marshall56, J. Mena-Fernández43, F. Menanteau39,40, R. Miquel57,1, J. Muir58,59, J. Myles8, R. L. C. Ogando60,61, A. Palmese62, M. Paterno16, P. Petravick39, A. A. Plazas Malagón18,26, M. Raveri63, A. Roodman18,26, S. Samuroff1,34, E. Sanchez12, E. Sheldon64, T. Shin65, M. Smith66, E. Suchyta67, M. E. C. Swanson39, G. Tarle32, D. Thomas33, V. Vikram2, and A. R. Walker29 (DES Collaboration)

    • 1Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona) Spain
    • 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
    • 3Department of Physics, Duke University Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA
    • 4Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
    • 5Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
    • 6Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC), Campus UAB, Carrer de Can Magrans, s/n, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
    • 7Barcelona, Edifici C Facultat de Ciències, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
    • 8Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
    • 9Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
    • 10Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
    • 11Oxford College of Emory University, Oxford, Georgia 30054, USA
    • 12Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain
    • 13Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA
    • 14Physics Department, 2320 Chamberlin Hall, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1150 University Avenue Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1390, USA
    • 15Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), 08034 Barcelona, Spain
    • 16Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, P. O. Box 500, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
    • 17Physics Department, William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri 64068, USA
    • 18SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
    • 19University Observatory, LMU Faculty of Physics, Scheinerstrasse 1, 81679 Munich, Germany
    • 20Ruhr University Bochum, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Astronomical Institute, German Centre for Cosmological Lensing, 44780 Bochum, Germany
    • 21Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain
    • 22Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University, Hannes Alfvéns väg 12, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
    • 23Instituto de Física Teórica UAM/CSIC, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
    • 24Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie, CNRS Université Paris-Saclay, Bátiment 100, F-91405 Orsay Cedex, France
    • 25Departament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
    • 26Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, P. O. Box 2450, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
    • 27Department of Physics, Stanford University, 382 Via Pueblo Mall, Stanford, California 94305, USA
    • 28Physik-Institut, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland
    • 29Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, Casilla 603, La Serena, Chile
    • 30Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia—LIneA, Avenida Pastor Martin Luther King Jr., 126 Del Castilho, Nova América Offices, Torre 3000/sala 817 CEP: 20765-000, Brazil
    • 31INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via G. B. Tiepolo 11, I-34143 Trieste, Italy
    • 32Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
    • 33Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, PO1 3FX, United Kingdom
    • 34Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
    • 35Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
    • 36School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
    • 37Universidad de La Laguna, Departamento Astrofísica, E-38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
    • 38Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
    • 39Center for Astrophysical Surveys, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, 1205 West Clark Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
    • 40Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1002 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
    • 41Hamburger Sternwarte, Universität Hamburg, Gojenbergsweg 112, 21029 Hamburg, Germany
    • 42Department of Physics, IIT Hyderabad, Kandi, Telangana 502285, India
    • 43Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, LPSC-IN2P3, 38000 Grenoble, France
    • 44Department of Astronomy/Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85721-0065, USA
    • 45Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, USA
    • 46Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
    • 47California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, MC 249-17, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
    • 48Instituto de Fisica Teorica UAM/CSIC, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
    • 49Department of Physics and Astronomy, Pevensey Building, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QH, United Kingdom
    • 50Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA
    • 51Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
    • 52Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
    • 53Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
    • 54Australian Astronomical Optics, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales 2113, Australia
    • 55Lowell Observatory, 1400 Mars Hill Road, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001, USA
    • 56George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA
    • 57Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, E-08010 Barcelona, Spain
    • 58Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA
    • 59Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline Street North, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada
    • 60Centro de Tecnologia da Informação Renato Archer, Campinas, SP, 13069-901, Brazil
    • 61Observatório Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 20921-400, Brazil
    • 62Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15312, USA
    • 63Department of Physics, University of Genova and INFN, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146, Genova, Italy
    • 64Brookhaven National Laboratory, Building 510, Upton, New York 11973, USA
    • 65Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA
    • 66Physics Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YB, United Kingdom
    • 67Computer Science and Mathematics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA

    • *Contact author: wdoumerg@ifae.es
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    Phys. Rev. D 113, 123549 – Published 26 June, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6lfl-h6dg

    Abstract

    This work is part of a series establishing the redshift framework for the 3×2pt analysis of the Dark Energy Survey Year 6 (DES Y6). For DES Y6, photometric redshift distributions are estimated using self-organizing maps (SOMs), calibrated with spectroscopic and many-band photometric data. To overcome limitations from color-redshift degeneracies and incomplete spectroscopic coverage, we enhance this approach by incorporating clustering-based redshift constraints (clustering-z, or WZ) from angular cross-correlations with BOSS and eBOSS galaxies and eBOSS quasar samples. We define a WZ likelihood and apply importance sampling to a large ensemble of SOM-derived n(z) realizations, selecting those consistent with the clustering measurements to produce a posterior sample for each lens and source bin. The analysis uses angular scales corresponding to 1.5–5 Mpc to optimize signal-to-noise ratio while mitigating modeling uncertainties and marginalizes over redshift-dependent galaxy bias and other systematics informed by the N-body simulation cardinal. While a sparser spectroscopic reference sample limits WZ constraining power at z>1.1, particularly for source bins, we demonstrate that combining SOM with WZ improves redshift accuracy and enhances the overall cosmological constraining power of DES Y6. We estimate an improvement in S8 of approximately 10% for cosmic shear and 3×2pt analysis, primarily due to the WZ calibration of the source samples.

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    Phys. Rev. D 113, 123549– Published 26 June, 2026
    • Received 10 November 2025
    • Accepted 18 February 2026
    Article part of CHORUS
    Accepted manuscript will be available starting 26 June, 2027.
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