# Measurements of effective optical depth in the Ly$\alpha$ forest from the BOSS DR12 Quasar sample

## TL;DR

This study measures the effective optical depth in the Lyα forest using a large quasar sample, providing highly precise estimates of its redshift evolution and examining implications for cosmic reionization.

## Contribution

It presents the most precise measurements of the optical depth parameters in the Lyα forest from BOSS DR12 data, with a detailed analysis of systematic uncertainties.

## Key findings

- Power-law model fits the optical depth evolution with $ au_0$ and $eta$ parameters.
- Systematic errors dominate the uncertainty in the redshift evolution parameter.
- No significant evidence for He II reionization signals was found.

## Abstract

We measure the effective optical depth in the Lyman-alpha (Ly$\alpha$) forest using 40,035 quasar spectra from the Twelfth Data Release (DR12) of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of SDSS-IV. A rigorous selection based on spectral index and the equivalent width of the C IV emission line is applied to choose seven uniform samples with minimal intrinsic variations across redshifts. Modeling the redshift evolution of the effective optical depth with a power-law, $\tau_\mathrm{eff}=\tau_0 (1 + z)^\gamma$ produces $\tau_0=(5.54 \pm 0.64)\times 10^{-3}$ and $\gamma=3.182 \pm 0.074$. The 2.2% precision estimate on $\gamma$ is dominated by systematic errors, likely arising from the bias and uncertainties in spectral index estimates. Even after incorporating the systematic errors, this work provides the most precise estimates of optical depth parameters to date. Finally, using the reconstructed Ly$\alpha$ forest continuum to directly measure the transmitted flux ratio as a function of redshift, we find deviations of less than 2.5% from the predictions from the global model and no convincing evidence for signal associated with He II reionization.