Data Release 1 of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument

TL;DR

DESI Data Release 1 provides the largest collection of extragalactic redshifts, enabling precise cosmological measurements and diverse astrophysical research from the first 13 months of its spectroscopic survey.

Contribution

This paper presents the first data release from DESI, including a comprehensive dataset of 18.7 million redshifts and detailed data processing methods, marking a significant advancement in large-scale structure mapping.

Findings

Largest sample of extragalactic redshifts assembled

High-confidence redshifts for 18.7 million objects

Enables precise constraints on dark energy and structure growth

Abstract

In 2021 May the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) collaboration began a 5-year spectroscopic redshift survey to produce a detailed map of the evolving three-dimensional structure of the universe between $z=0$ and $z\approx4$. DESI's principle scientific objectives are to place precise constraints on the equation of state of dark energy, the gravitationally driven growth of large-scale structure, and the sum of the neutrino masses, and to explore the observational signatures of primordial inflation. We present DESI Data Release 1 (DR1), which consists of all data acquired during the first 13 months of the DESI main survey, as well as a uniform reprocessing of the DESI Survey Validation data which was previously made public in the DESI Early Data Release. The DR1 main survey includes high-confidence redshifts for 18.7M objects, of which 13.1M are spectroscopically classified as galaxies, 1.6M as quasars, and 4M as stars, making DR1 the largest sample of extragalactic redshifts ever assembled. We summarize the DR1 observations, the spectroscopic data-reduction pipeline and data products, large-scale structure catalogs, value-added catalogs, and describe how to access and interact with the data. In addition to fulfilling its core cosmological objectives with unprecedented precision, we expect DR1 to enable a wide range of transformational astrophysical studies and discoveries.