Spectroscopic Surveys

Optimization of spectroscopic surveys for testing non-Gaussianity

We investigate optimization strategies to measure primordial non-Gaussianity with future spectroscopic surveys. We forecast measurements coming from the 3D galaxy power spectrum and compute constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity parameters fNL and nNG. After studying the dependence on those parameters upon survey specifications such as redshift range, area, number density, we assume a refere...

Optical Spectroscopic Surveys of Photometrically Selected Pre-Main Sequence Star Candidates

Self Calibration of Galaxy Bias in Spectroscopic Redshift Surveys of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations

Baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) is a powerful probe on the expansion of the universe, shedding light on elusive dark energy and gravity at cosmological scales. BAO measurements through biased tracers of the underlying matter density field, as most proposals do, can reach high statistical accuracy. However, possible scale dependence in bias may induce non-negligible systematical errors, especi...

Gaussian Processes for Identifying Damped Lyman-α Systems in Spectroscopic Surveys

We present an application of Gaussian processes to the problem of discovering “damped Lyman-α systems” (DLAs), dense regions of hydrogen gas that are likely the birthplace of galaxies like the Milky Way. We apply this method to a large spectroscopic survey of quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III).

SDSS - III : Massive Spectroscopic Surveys of the Distant Universe , the Milky Way Galaxy , and Extra - Solar Planetary Systems