The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Precision measurements of the absolute cosmic distance scale

Understand

BOSS, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, is a 5-year program to measure the absolute cosmic distance scale and expansion rate with percent-level precision at redshifts z<0.7 and z~2.5.

• BOSS uses the &#34;standard ruler&#34; provided by baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO).
• BOSS will achieve a near optimal measurement of the BAO scale at z<0.7, with a redshift survey of 1.5 million luminous galaxies.
• It will pioneer a new method of BAO measurement at high redshift, using the LyA forest to 160,000 QSOs in the redshift range 2.1<z<3.0.