Demonstrating the Use of the Spherical Fourier Bessel Basis for Large Scale Clustering Systematics Discovery and Mitigation with eBOSS

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how the Spherical Fourier-Bessel basis can identify and mitigate systematics in large-scale clustering surveys, improving cosmological signal analysis using eBOSS data.

Contribution

It applies the SFB basis to eBOSS data to detect and analyze systematics affecting large-scale clustering measurements.

Findings

Identified systematics in eBOSS QSO and LRG samples affecting large scales.

Found evidence of residual stellar contamination in QSO data.

Detected unknown systematics at specific angular scales in both samples.

Abstract

The Spherical Fourier-Bessel (SFB) basis, in separating the angular and radial modes of the power spectrum, permits a targeted identification and mitigation of systematics in clustering surveys while retaining more cosmological signal than traditional bases. We demonstrate this principle on the eBOSS DR16 LRG and QSO samples, identifying modes which may be contaminated by systematics. Our initial inference on the LRG sample yields an fNL value consistent with zero, while the QSO value is in slight tension with zero. Using the SFB basis, we vary the selection of angular and radial modes to search for inconsistencies in the inferred value of fNL, an indicator of underlying systematics. In the QSO sample, we find evidence (p < 0.005 compared to the same cuts on EZMocks) of a systematic afflicting large physical scales, which is consistent with residual stellar contamination; we also find evidence (p < 0.05) for an unknown systematic in the QSO and LRG samples at the approximate angular plate and imaging scale of eBOSS.