Synthetic spectra for Lyman-α forest analysis in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
H. K. Herrera-Alcantar, A. Muñoz-Gutiérrez, T. Tan, Alma X. González‐Morales, Andreu Font-Ribera, J. Guy, John Moustakas, David Kirkby, E. Armengaud, A. Bault, L. Cabayol-Garcia, J. Chaves-Montero, Andrei Cuceu, Rodrigo de la Cruz, Luz Ángela García, C. Gordon, Vid Iršič, Naim Göksel Karaçaylı, J.M. Le Goff, Paulo Montero-Camacho, Gustavo Niz, Ignasi Pérez-Ràfols, C. Ramírez-Pérez, C. Ravoux, Michael Walther, J. Aguilar, S. P. Ahlen, D. Brooks, T. Claybaugh, Kyle Dawson, Axel de la Macorra, P. Doel, J. E. Forero-Romero, E. Gaztañaga, Satya Gontcho A Gontcho, K. Honscheid, R. Kehoe, T. Kisner, Martin Landriau, M. E. Levi, Marc Manera, Paul Martini, Aaron Meisner, R. Miquel, Jundan Nie, N. Palanque‐Delabrouille, Claire Poppett, Mehdi Rezaie, Graziano Rossi, E. Sánchez, Hee‐Jong Seo, G. Tarlé, B. A. Weaver, Zhimin Zhou
Abstract
Abstract Synthetic data sets are used in cosmology to test analysis procedures, to verify that systematic errors are well understood and to demonstrate that measurements are unbiased. In this work we describe the methods used to generate synthetic datasets of Lyman-α quasar spectra aimed for studies with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). In particular, we focus on demonstrating that our simulations reproduces important features of real samples, making them suitable to test the analysis methods to be used in DESI and to place limits on systematic effects on measurements of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO). We present a set of mocks that reproduce the statistical properties of the DESI early data set with good agreement. Additionally, we use a synthetic dataset to forecast the BAO scale constraining power of the completed DESI survey through the Lyman- α forest.