A Unified Tracer Analysis of DESI DR2 Baryon Acoustic Oscillations

@misc{sanders2026unified,
  title = {{A Unified Tracer Analysis of DESI DR2 Baryon Acoustic Oscillations}},
  author = {N. Sanders and H. Seo and M. Rashkovetskyi and U. Andrade and D. Valcin and E. Paillas and P. McDonald and J. Aguilar and S. Ahlen and O. Alves and E. Armengaud and A. Aviles and F. Beutler and D. Bianchi and D. Brooks and A. Carnero Rosell and E. Chaussidon and T. Claybaugh and S. Cole and A. Cuceu and A. de la Macorra and Biprateep Dey and Z. Ding and P. Doel and S. Ferraro and A. Font-Ribera and D. Forero-Sánchez and J. E. Forero-Romero and E. Gaztañaga and Satya Gontcho A Gontcho and A. X. Gonzalez-Morales and G. Gutierrez and C. Hahn and H. K. Herrera-Alcantar and K. Honscheid and S. Juneau and T. Karim and D. Kirkby and A. Kremin and O. Lahav and C. Lamman and M. Landriau and L. Le Guillou and M. Manera and A. Meisner and R. Miquel and J. Moustakas and A. Muñoz-Gutiérrez and S. Nadathur and J. A. Newman and H. E. Noriega and N. Palanque-Delabrouille and W. J. Percival and F. Prada and I. Pérez-Ràfols and C. Ravoux and A. J. Ross and G. Rossi and L. Samushia and E. Sanchez},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = aug,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.27830},
  eprint = {2608.27830},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.27830},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - A Unified Tracer Analysis of DESI DR2 Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
AU  - N. Sanders
AU  - H. Seo
AU  - M. Rashkovetskyi
AU  - U. Andrade
AU  - D. Valcin
AU  - E. Paillas
AU  - P. McDonald
AU  - J. Aguilar
AU  - S. Ahlen
AU  - O. Alves
AU  - E. Armengaud
AU  - A. Aviles
AU  - F. Beutler
AU  - D. Bianchi
AU  - D. Brooks
AU  - A. Carnero Rosell
AU  - E. Chaussidon
AU  - T. Claybaugh
AU  - S. Cole
AU  - A. Cuceu
AU  - A. de la Macorra
AU  - Biprateep Dey
AU  - Z. Ding
AU  - P. Doel
AU  - S. Ferraro
AU  - A. Font-Ribera
AU  - D. Forero-Sánchez
AU  - J. E. Forero-Romero
AU  - E. Gaztañaga
AU  - Satya Gontcho A Gontcho
AU  - A. X. Gonzalez-Morales
AU  - G. Gutierrez
AU  - C. Hahn
AU  - H. K. Herrera-Alcantar
AU  - K. Honscheid
AU  - S. Juneau
AU  - T. Karim
AU  - D. Kirkby
AU  - A. Kremin
AU  - O. Lahav
AU  - C. Lamman
AU  - M. Landriau
AU  - L. Le Guillou
AU  - M. Manera
AU  - A. Meisner
AU  - R. Miquel
AU  - J. Moustakas
AU  - A. Muñoz-Gutiérrez
AU  - S. Nadathur
AU  - J. A. Newman
AU  - H. E. Noriega
AU  - N. Palanque-Delabrouille
AU  - W. J. Percival
AU  - F. Prada
AU  - I. Pérez-Ràfols
AU  - C. Ravoux
AU  - A. J. Ross
AU  - G. Rossi
AU  - L. Samushia
AU  - E. Sanchez
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/28
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.27830
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.27830
AB  - We improve upon previous efforts to optimally combine overlapping galaxy samples in the DESI baryon acoustic oscillation analysis. By weighting each galaxy by its linear bias, overlapping galaxies are combined into a single, unified catalog, naturally avoiding double counting of cosmic volume and including all auto- and cross- information at the catalog level. Improvements over the previous effort include the addition of QSO out to z=1.6 to account for all overlapping DR2 tracers and redshift-dependent bias treatment to improve reconstruction. We report distance measurements using this unified tracer, and find them to be highly consistent with the baseline DR2 BAO analysis. We also test for tracer-dependent systematics within the DESI data, and find no evidence of tracer-dependent systematics within 0.8<z<1.6. Finally, we take advantage of the unified tracer to rebin the analysis in redshift in order to more finely resolve the redshift-to-distance relation. Dynamical dark energy results on this finer redshift binning indicate that there is no missed feature in the expansion history in the redshifts 0.8<z<1.6, and reproduces DESI's preference for an evolving dark energy equation of state.
ER  -