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Validation of the DESI DR2 BAO analysis using synthetic datasets
L. Casas1, H. K. Herrera-Alcantar2,3, J. Chaves-Montero1, A. Cuceu4,*, A. Font-Ribera1, M. Lokken1, M. Abdul-Karim3, C. Ramírez-Pérez1, D. Alonso5 et al. (DESI Collaboration)
D. Alonso5, J. Aguilar4, S. Ahlen6, U. Andrade7,8, E. Armengaud3, A. Aviles9,10,11, S. Bailey4, S. BenZvi12, D. Bianchi13,14, A. Brodzeller4, D. Brooks15, R. Canning16, A. Carnero Rosell17,18, M. Charles19, E. Chaussidon4, T. Claybaugh4, K. S. Dawson20, A. de la Macorra11, A. de Mattia3, Arjun Dey21, Biprateep Dey22,23, Z. Ding24, P. Doel15, D. J. Eisenstein25, W. Elbers26, S. Ferraro4,27, J. E. Forero-Romero28,29, C. Garcia-Quintero25,*, Lehman H. Garrison30,31, E. Gaztañaga32,16,33, H. Gil-Marín34,32,35, S. Gontcho A. Gontcho4, A. X. Gonzalez-Morales36, C. Gordon1, G. Gutierrez37, J. Guy4, M. Herbold19, K. Honscheid38,39,19, C. Howlett40, D. Huterer41,8, M. Ishak42, S. Juneau21, R. Kehoe43, D. Kirkby44, T. Kisner4, A. Kremin4, O. Lahav15, M. Landriau4, J. M. Le Goff3, L. Le Guillou45, A. Leauthaud46,47, M. E. Levi4, Q. Li20, M. Manera48,1, P. Martini38,49,19, A. Meisner21, J. Mena-Fernández50, R. Miquel51,1, J. Moustakas52, D. Muñoz Santos53, A. D. Myers54, S. Nadathur16, L. Napolitano54, G. Niz36,9, H. E. Noriega10,11, E. Paillas55,56, N. Palanque-Delabrouille3,4, W. J. Percival57,58,59, Matthew M. Pieri53, C. Poppett4,60,27, F. Prada61, I. Pérez-Ràfols62, C. Ravoux63, G. Rossi64, E. Sanchez65, D. Schlegel4, M. Schubnell41,8, H. Seo66, F. Sinigaglia17,18, D. Sprayberry21, T. Tan3, G. Tarlé8, P. Taylor19, W. Turner38,49,19, M. Vargas-Magaña11, M. Walther67,68, B. A. Weaver21, M. Wolfson19, C. Yèche3, P. Zarrouk45, and R. Zhou4 (DESI Collaboration)
- 1Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Edifici Cn, Campus UAB, 08193, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
- 2Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, 98 bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
- 3IRFU, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
- 4Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- 5Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom
- 6Physics Department, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
- 7Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Michigan, 450 Church Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1040, USA
- 8University of Michigan, 500 South State Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
- 9Instituto Avanzado de Cosmología A. C., San Marcos 11-Atenas 202, Magdalena Contreras, Ciudad de México C. P. 10720, Mexico
- 10Instituto de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Avenida Universidad s/n, Cuernavaca, Morelos, C. P. 62210, Mexico
- 11Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito de la Investigación Científica, Ciudad Universitaria, Cd. de México C. P. 04510, Mexico
- 12Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, 206 Bausch and Lomb Hall, P.O. Box 270171, Rochester, New York 14627-0171, USA
- 13Dipartimento di Fisica “Aldo Pontremoli,” Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 16, I-20133 Milano, Italy
- 14INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via Brera 28, 20122 Milano, Italy
- 15Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
- 16Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Dennis Sciama Building, Portsmouth, PO1 3FX, United Kingdom
- 17Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), E-38206, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
- 18Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, C/ Vía Láctea, s/n, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
- 19The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210 Ohio, USA
- 20Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Utah, 115 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA
- 21NSF NOIRLab, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85719, USA
- 22Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H4, Canada
- 23Department of Physics and Astronomy and Pittsburgh Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Center (PITT PACC), University of Pittsburgh, 3941 O’Hara Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA
- 24University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 211135, People’s Republic of China
- 25Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
- 26Institute for Computational Cosmology, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
- 27University of California, Berkeley, 110 Sproul Hall No. 5800 Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- 28Departamento de Física, Universidad de los Andes, Carrera 1 No. 18A-10, Edificio Ip, CP 111711, Bogotá, Colombia
- 29Observatorio Astronómico, Universidad de los Andes, Carrera 1 No. 18A-10, Edificio H, CP 111711 Bogotá, Colombia
- 30Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, 162 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010, USA
- 31Scientific Computing Core, Flatiron Institute, 162 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010, USA
- 32Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), c/ Esteve Terradas 1, Edifici RDIT, Campus PMT-UPC, 08860 Castelldefels, Spain
- 33Institute of Space Sciences, ICE-CSIC, Campus UAB, Carrer de Can Magrans s/n, 08913 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
- 34Departament de Física Quàntica i Astrofísica, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1, E08028 Barcelona, Spain
- 35Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), c. Martí i Franquès, 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
- 36Departamento de Física, DCI-Campus León, Universidad de Guanajuato, Loma del Bosque 103, León, Guanajuato C. P. 37150, Mexico
- 37Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, PO Box 500, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
- 38Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics, The Ohio State University, 191 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
- 39Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, 191 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
- 40School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
- 41Department of Physics, University of Michigan, 450 Church Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
- 42Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Dallas, 800 West Campbell Road, Richardson, Texas 75080, USA
- 43Department of Physics, Southern Methodist University, 3215 Daniel Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75275, USA
- 44Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA
- 45Sorbonne Université, CNRS/IN2P3, Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Energies (LPNHE), FR-75005 Paris, France
- 46Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA
- 47Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California 95065, USA
- 48Departament de Física, Serra Húnter, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
- 49Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University, 4055 McPherson Laboratory, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
- 50Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, 53 Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France
- 51Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
- 52Department of Physics and Astronomy, Siena College, 515 Loudon Road, Loudonville, New York 12211, USA
- 53Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, CNES, LAM, Marseille, France
- 54Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming, 1000 East University, Department 3905, Laramie, Wyoming 82071, USA
- 55Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
- 56Instituto de Estudios Astrofísicos, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Universidad Diego Portales, Avenida Ejército Libertador 441, Santiago, Chile
- 57Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
- 58Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline Street North, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada
- 59Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
- 60Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- 61Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Glorieta de la Astronomía, s/n, E-18008 Granada, Spain
- 62Departament de Física, EEBE, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, c/Eduard Maristany 10, 08930 Barcelona, Spain
- 63Université Clermont-Auvergne, CNRS, LPCA, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France
- 64Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sejong University, 209 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 05006, Republic of Korea
- 65CIEMAT, Avenida Complutense 40, E-28040 Madrid, Spain
- 66Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, 139 University Terrace, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA
- 67Excellence Cluster ORIGINS, Boltzmannstrasse 2, D-85748 Garching, Germany
- 68University Observatory, Faculty of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Scheinerstrasse 1, 81677 München, Germany
- *NASA Einstein Fellow.
Phys. Rev. D 113, 023520 – Published 16 January, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/fvgh-kswf
Abstract
The second data release (DR2) of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), containing data from the first three years of observations, doubles the number of Lyman- () forest spectra in DR1 and it provides the largest dataset of its kind. To ensure a robust validation of the baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) analysis using forests, we have made significant updates compared to DR1 to both the mocks and the analysis framework used in the validation. In particular, we present CoLoRe-QL, a new set of mocks that use a quasilinear input power spectrum to incorporate the nonlinear broadening of the BAO peak. We have also increased the number of realizations used in the validation to 400, compared to the 150 realizations used in DR1. Finally, we present a detailed study of the impact of quasar redshift errors on the BAO measurement, and we compare different strategies to mask damped Lyman- absorbers in our spectra. The BAO measurement from the dataset of DESI DR2 is presented in a companion publication.