Optimized Clustering Estimators for BAO Measurements Accounting for Significant Redshift Uncertainty

Understand

We determine an optimized clustering statistic to be used for galaxy samples with significant redshift uncertainty, such as those that rely on photometric redshifts.

• To do so, we study the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) information content as a function of the orientation of galaxy clustering modes with respect to their angle to the line-of-sight (LOS).
• The clustering along the LOS, as observed in a redshift-space with significant redshift uncertainty, has contributions from clustering modes with a range of orientations with respect to the true LOS.
• For redshift uncertainty $\sigma_z \geq 0.02(1+z)$ we find that while the BAO information is confined to transverse clustering modes in the true space, it is spread nearly evenly in the observed space.