Measuring baryon acoustic oscillations with angular two-point correlation function

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how the angular two-point correlation function can be used to measure baryon acoustic oscillations in galaxy surveys, providing new data to constrain cosmological models and dark energy properties.

Contribution

It introduces a new method to identify the BAO feature in the correlation function in a model-independent way and provides new BAO measurements at specific redshifts.

Findings

New BAO angular scale measurements at z=0.235 and z=0.365

A novel method for localizing the BAO bump in the correlation function

Constraints on dark energy parameters using combined BAO data

Abstract

The Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) imprinted a characteristic correlation length in the large-scale structure of the universe that can be used as a standard ruler for mapping out the cosmic expansion history. Here, we discuss the application of the angular two-point correlation function, $w(\theta)$, to a sample of luminous red galaxies of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and derive two new measurements of the BAO angular scale at $z = 0.235$ and $z = 0.365$. Since noise and systematics may hinder the identification of the BAO signature in the $w - \theta$ plane, we also introduce a potential new method to localize the acoustic bump in a model-independent way. We use these new measurements along with previous data to constrain cosmological parameters of dark energy models and to derive a new estimate of the acoustic scale $r_s$.