Optimal Redshift Weighting For Baryon Acoustic Oscillations

TL;DR

This paper develops optimal redshift weights to efficiently compress BAO survey data across wide redshift ranges, preserving signal and improving measurement precision for future large-volume surveys.

Contribution

It introduces a method to derive redshift weights for data compression in BAO surveys, enhancing signal preservation and measurement accuracy.

Findings

Redshift weights effectively compress BAO information.

High signal-to-noise measurements achieved for combined redshift modes.

Method applicable to large-volume, wide-redshift surveys.

Abstract

Future baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) surveys will survey very large volumes, covering wide ranges in redshift. We derive a set of redshift weights to compress the information in the redshift direction to a small number of modes. We suggest that such a compression preserves almost all of the signal for most cosmologies, while giving high signal-to-noise measurements for each combination. We present some toy models and simple worked examples. As an intermediate step, we give a precise meaning to the "effective redshift" of a BAO measurement.