Baryon Acoustic Oscillations reconstruction with pixels

TL;DR

This paper introduces a pixel-based BAO reconstruction method that simplifies implementation and is especially useful for unresolved galaxy surveys like 21cm intensity mapping, effectively reducing peak position uncertainty.

Contribution

The paper proposes a pixel displacement reconstruction technique that is equivalent to standard methods in the large pixel limit and easier to implement for unresolved surveys.

Findings

Reduces BAO peak position uncertainty by 30-50%.

Effective in real- and redshift-space from simulations.

Applicable to surveys with limited resolution like 21cm mapping.

Abstract

Gravitational non-linear evolution induces a shift in the position of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) peak together with a damping and broadening of its shape that bias and degrades the accuracy with which the position of the peak can be determined. BAO reconstruction is a technique developed to undo part of the effect of non-linearities. We present and analyse a reconstruction method that consists of displacing pixels instead of galaxies and whose implementation is easier than the standard reconstruction method. We show that this method is equivalent to the standard reconstruction technique in the limit where the number of pixels becomes very large. This method is particularly useful in surveys where individual galaxies are not resolved, as in 21cm intensity mapping observations. We validate this method by reconstructing mock pixelated maps, that we build from the distribution of matter and halos in real- and redshift-space, from a large set of numerical simulations. We find that this method is able to decrease the uncertainty in the BAO peak position by 30-50% over the typical angular resolution scales of 21 cm intensity mapping experiments.