The Astronomical Journal (Jan 2023)

The DESI Bright Galaxy Survey: Final Target Selection, Design, and Validation

  • ChangHoon Hahn,
  • Michael J. Wilson,
  • Omar Ruiz-Macias,
  • Shaun Cole,
  • David H. Weinberg,
  • John Moustakas,
  • Anthony Kremin,
  • Jeremy L. Tinker,
  • Alex Smith,
  • Risa H. Wechsler,
  • Steven Ahlen,
  • Shadab Alam,
  • Stephen Bailey,
  • David Brooks,
  • Andrew P. Cooper,
  • Tamara M. Davis,
  • Kyle Dawson,
  • Arjun Dey,
  • Biprateep Dey,
  • Sarah Eftekharzadeh,
  • Daniel J. Eisenstein,
  • Kevin Fanning,
  • Jaime E. Forero-Romero,
  • Carlos S. Frenk,
  • Enrique Gaztañaga,
  • Satya Gontcho A Gontcho,
  • Julien Guy,
  • Klaus Honscheid,
  • Mustapha Ishak,
  • Stéphanie Juneau,
  • Robert Kehoe,
  • Theodore Kisner,
  • Ting-Wen Lan,
  • Martin Landriau,
  • Laurent Le Guillou,
  • Michael E. Levi,
  • Christophe Magneville,
  • Paul Martini,
  • Aaron Meisner,
  • Adam D. Myers,
  • Jundan Nie,
  • Peder Norberg,
  • Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille,
  • Will J. Percival,
  • Claire Poppett,
  • Francisco Prada,
  • Anand Raichoor,
  • Ashley J. Ross,
  • Sasha Safonova,
  • Christoph Saulder,
  • Eddie Schlafly,
  • David Schlegel,
  • David Sierra-Porta,
  • Gregory Tarle,
  • Benjamin A. Weaver,
  • Christophe Yèche,
  • Pauline Zarrouk,
  • Rongpu Zhou,
  • Zhimin Zhou,
  • Hu Zou

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/accff8
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 165, no. 6
p. 253

Abstract

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Over the next 5 yr, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will use 10 spectrographs with 5000 fibers on the 4 m Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory to conduct the first Stage IV dark energy galaxy survey. At z 10 million galaxies spanning 14,000 deg ^2 . In this work, we present and validate the final BGS target selection and survey design. From the Legacy Surveys, BGS will target an r 80% fiber assignment efficiency. Finally, BGS Bright and BGS Faint will achieve >95% redshift success over any observing condition. BGS meets the requirements for an extensive range of scientific applications. BGS will yield the most precise baryon acoustic oscillation and redshift-space distortion measurements at z < 0.4. It presents opportunities for new methods that require highly complete and dense samples (e.g., N -point statistics, multitracers). BGS further provides a powerful tool to study galaxy populations and the relations between galaxies and dark matter.

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