The Astronomical Journal (Jan 2023)
Detecting and Characterizing Mg ii Absorption in DESI Survey Validation Quasar Spectra
- Lucas Napolitano,
- Agnesh Pandey,
- Adam D. Myers,
- Ting-Wen Lan,
- Abhijeet Anand,
- Jessica Aguilar,
- Steven Ahlen,
- David M. Alexander,
- David Brooks,
- Rebecca Canning,
- Chiara Circosta,
- Axel De La Macorra,
- Peter Doel,
- Sarah Eftekharzadeh,
- Victoria A. Fawcett,
- Andreu Font-Ribera,
- Juan Garcia-Bellido,
- Satya Gontcho A Gontcho,
- L. Le Guillou,
- Julien Guy,
- Klaus Honscheid,
- Stephanie Juneau,
- T. Kisner,
- Martin Landriau,
- Aaron M. Meisner,
- Ramon Miquel,
- J. Moustakas,
- Will J. Percival,
- J. Xavier Prochaska,
- Michael Schubnell,
- Gregory Tarlé,
- B. A. Weaver,
- Benjamin Weiner,
- Zhimin Zhou,
- Hu Zou,
- Siwei Zou
Affiliations
- Lucas Napolitano
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Wyoming , 1000 E. University, Dept. 3905, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
- Agnesh Pandey
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Wyoming , 1000 E. University, Dept. 3905, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
- Adam D. Myers
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Wyoming , 1000 E. University, Dept. 3905, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
- Ting-Wen Lan
- ORCiD
- Graduate Institute of Astrophysics and Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
- Abhijeet Anand
- ORCiD
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Jessica Aguilar
- ORCiD
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Steven Ahlen
- ORCiD
- Physics Dept., Boston University , 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA
- David M. Alexander
- ORCiD
- Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK
- David Brooks
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London , Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
- Rebecca Canning
- Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation, University of Portsmouth , Dennis Sciama Building, Portsmouth, PO1 3FX, UK
- Chiara Circosta
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London , Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
- Axel De La Macorra
- Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México , Cd. de México C.P. 04510, México
- Peter Doel
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London , Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
- Sarah Eftekharzadeh
- Universities Space Research Association, NASA Ames Research Centre, USA
- Victoria A. Fawcett
- ORCiD
- Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK; School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University, NE1 7RU, UK
- Andreu Font-Ribera
- ORCiD
- Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Campus UAB, E-08193 Bellaterra Barcelona, Spain
- Juan Garcia-Bellido
- ORCiD
- Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT) UAM/CSIC, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, E-28049, Madrid, Spain
- Satya Gontcho A Gontcho
- ORCiD
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester , 500 Joseph C. Wilson Boulevard, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
- L. Le Guillou
- ORCiD
- Sorbonne Université, CNRS/IN2P3, Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Energies (LPNHE), F-75005 Paris, France
- Julien Guy
- ORCiD
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Klaus Honscheid
- Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics, The Ohio State University, 191 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; Department of Physics, The Ohio State University , 191 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
- Stephanie Juneau
- ORCiD
- NSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- T. Kisner
- ORCiD
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Martin Landriau
- ORCiD
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Aaron M. Meisner
- ORCiD
- NSF's NOIRLab, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Ramon Miquel
- ORCiD
- Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Campus UAB, E-08193 Bellaterra Barcelona, Spain; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Pg. de Lluís Companys 23, E-08010 Barcelona, Spain
- J. Moustakas
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Siena College, 515 Loudon Road, Loudonville, NY 12211, USA
- Will J. Percival
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo , 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada; Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline Street North, Waterloo, ON N2L 2Y5, Canada; Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics, University of Waterloo , 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
- J. Xavier Prochaska
- ORCiD
- University of California , Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA; Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, 277-8583, Japan
- Michael Schubnell
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , 450 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Gregory Tarlé
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan , 450 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- B. A. Weaver
- NSF's NOIRLab, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Benjamin Weiner
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Zhimin Zhou
- ORCiD
- National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, A20 Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100012, People’s Republic of China
- Hu Zou
- ORCiD
- National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, A20 Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100012, People’s Republic of China
- Siwei Zou
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of China
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ace62c
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 166,
no. 3
p. 99
Abstract
We present findings of the detection of Magnesium II (Mg ii , λ = 2796, 2803 Å) absorbers from the early data release of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). DESI is projected to obtain spectroscopy of approximately 3 million quasars (QSOs), of which over 99% are anticipated to be at redshifts greater than z > 0.3, such that DESI would be able to observe an associated or intervening Mg ii absorber illuminated by the background QSO. We have developed an autonomous supplementary spectral pipeline that detects these systems through an initial line-fitting process and then confirms the line properties using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampler. Based upon a visual inspection of the resulting systems, we estimate that this sample has a purity greater than 99%. We have also investigated the completeness of our sample in regard to both the signal-to-noise properties of the input spectra and the rest-frame equivalent width ( W _0 ) of the absorber systems. From a parent catalog containing 83,207 quasars, we detect a total of 23,921 Mg ii absorption systems following a series of quality cuts. Extrapolating from this occurrence rate of 28.8% implies a catalog at the completion of the five-year DESI survey that will contain over eight hundred thousand Mg ii absorbers. The cataloging of these systems will enable significant further research because they carry information regarding circumgalactic medium environments, the distribution of intervening galaxies, and the growth of metallicity across the redshift range 0.3 ≤ z < 2.5.
Keywords
