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The DESI Survey Validation: Results from Visual Inspection of Bright Galaxies, Luminous Red Galaxies, and Emission-line Galaxies

Lan, Ting-Wen; Tojeiro, R.; Armengaud, E.; Prochaska, J. Xavier; Davis, T.M.; Alexander, David M.; Raichoor, A.; Zhou, Rongpu; Yèche, Christophe; Balland, C.; BenZvi, S.; Berti, A.; Canning, R.; Carr, A.; Chittenden, H.; Cole, S.; Cousinou, M.-C.; Dawson, K.; Dey, Biprateep; Douglass, K.; Edge, A.; Escoffier, S.; Glanville, A.; A Gontcho, S. Gontcho; Guy, J.; Hahn, C.; Howlett, C.; Hwang, Ho Seong; Jiang, L.; Kovács, A.; Mezcua, M.; Moore, S.; Nadathur, S.; Oh, M.; Parkinson, D.; Rocher, A.; Ross, A.J.; Ruhlmann-Kleider, V.; Sabiu, C.G.; Said, K.; Saulder, C.; Sierra-Porta, D.; Weiner, B.; Yu, J.; Zarrouk, P.; Zhang, Y.; Zou, H.; Ahlen, S.; Bailey, S.; Brooks, D.; Cooper, A.P.; de la Macorra, A.; Dey, A.; Dhungana, G.; Doel, P.; Eftekharzadeh, S.; Fanning, K.; Font-Ribera, A.; Garrison, L.; Gaztañaga, E.; Kehoe, R.; Kisner, T.; Kremin, A.; Landriau, M.; Le Guillou, L.; Levi, Michael E.; Magneville, C.; Meisner, Aaron M.; Miquel, R.; Moustakas, J.; Myers, Adam D.; Newman, Jeffrey A.; Ni...

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Authors

Ting-Wen Lan

R. Tojeiro

E. Armengaud

J. Xavier Prochaska

T.M. Davis

A. Raichoor

Rongpu Zhou

Christophe Yèche

C. Balland

S. BenZvi

A. Berti

R. Canning

A. Carr

H. Chittenden

M.-C. Cousinou

K. Dawson

Biprateep Dey

K. Douglass

S. Escoffier

A. Glanville

S. Gontcho A Gontcho

J. Guy

C. Hahn

C. Howlett

Ho Seong Hwang

L. Jiang

A. Kovács

M. Mezcua

Sam Moore samuel.g.moore@durham.ac.uk
PGR Student Doctor of Philosophy

S. Nadathur

M. Oh

D. Parkinson

A. Rocher

A.J. Ross

V. Ruhlmann-Kleider

C.G. Sabiu

K. Said

C. Saulder

D. Sierra-Porta

B. Weiner

J. Yu

P. Zarrouk

Y. Zhang

H. Zou

S. Ahlen

S. Bailey

D. Brooks

A.P. Cooper

A. de la Macorra

A. Dey

G. Dhungana

P. Doel

S. Eftekharzadeh

K. Fanning

A. Font-Ribera

L. Garrison

E. Gaztañaga

R. Kehoe

T. Kisner

A. Kremin

M. Landriau

L. Le Guillou

Michael E. Levi

C. Magneville

Aaron M. Meisner

R. Miquel

J. Moustakas

Adam D. Myers

Jeffrey A. Newman

J.D. Nie

N. Palanque-Delabrouille

W.J. Percival

C. Poppett

F. Prada

M. Schubnell

Gregory Tarlé

B.A. Weaver

K. Zhang

Zhimin Zhou



Abstract

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Survey has obtained a set of spectroscopic measurements of galaxies to validate the final survey design and target selections. To assist in these tasks, we visually inspect DESI spectra of approximately 2500 bright galaxies, 3500 luminous red galaxies (LRGs), and 10,000 emission-line galaxies (ELGs) to obtain robust redshift identifications. We then utilize the visually inspected redshift information to characterize the performance of the DESI operation. Based on the visual inspection (VI) catalogs, our results show that the final survey design yields samples of bright galaxies, LRGs, and ELGs with purity greater than 99%. Moreover, we demonstrate that the precision of the redshift measurements is approximately 10 km s−1 for bright galaxies and ELGs and approximately 40 km s−1 for LRGs. The average redshift accuracy is within 10 km s−1 for the three types of galaxies. The VI process also helps improve the quality of the DESI data by identifying spurious spectral features introduced by the pipeline. Finally, we show examples of unexpected real astronomical objects, such as Lyα emitters and strong lensing candidates, identified by VI. These results demonstrate the importance and utility of visually inspecting data from incoming and upcoming surveys, especially during their early operation phases.

Citation

Lan, T., Tojeiro, R., Armengaud, E., Prochaska, J. X., Davis, T., Alexander, D. M., …Zhou, Z. (2023). The DESI Survey Validation: Results from Visual Inspection of Bright Galaxies, Luminous Red Galaxies, and Emission-line Galaxies. Astrophysical Journal, 943(1), Article 68. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aca5fa

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 22, 2022
Online Publication Date Jan 25, 2023
Publication Date 2023
Deposit Date Jun 8, 2023
Publicly Available Date Jun 8, 2023
Journal Astrophysical Journal
Print ISSN 0004-637X
Electronic ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher American Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 943
Issue 1
Article Number 68
DOI https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aca5fa

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Copyright Statement
Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.





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