The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) will provide the data to support detailed investigations of the distribution of luminous and non- luminous matter in the Universe: a photometrically and astrometrically calibrated digital imaging survey of pi steradians above about Galactic latitude 30 degrees in five broad optical bands to a depth of g' about 23 magnitudes, and a spectroscopic survey of the approximately one million brightest galaxies and 10^5 brightest quasars found in the photometric object catalog produced by the imaging survey. This paper summarizes the observational parameters and data products of the SDSS, and serves as an introduction to extensive technical on-line documentation.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, AAS Latex. To appear in AJ, Sept 200

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We present the large-scale correlation function measured from a spectroscopic sample of 46,748 luminous red galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The survey region covers 0.72h −3 Gpc 3 over 3816 square degrees and 0.16 < z < 0.47, making it the best sample yet for the study of large-scale structure. We find a well-detected peak in the correlation function at 100h −1 Mpc separation that is an excellent match to the predicted shape and location of the imprint of the recombination-epoch acoustic oscillations on the low-redshift clustering of matter. This detection demonstrates the linear growth of structure by gravitational instability between z ≈ 1000 and the present and confirms a firm prediction of the standard cosmological theory. The acoustic peak provides a standard ruler by which we can measure the ratio of the distances to z = 0.35 and z = 1089 to 4% fractional accuracy and the absolute distance to z = 0.35 to 5% accuracy. From the overall shape of the correlation function, we measure the matter density Ω m h 2 to 8% and find agreement with the value from cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies. Independent of the constraints provided by the CMB acoustic scale, we find Ω m = 0.273 ± 0.025 + 0.123(1 + w 0 ) + 0.137Ω K . Including the CMB acoustic scale, we find that the spatial curvature is Ω K = −0.010 ± 0.009 if the dark energy is a cosmological constant. More generally, our results provide a measurement of cosmological distance, and hence an argument for dark energy, based on a geometric method with the same simple physics as the microwave background anisotropies. The standard cosmological model convincingly passes these new and robust tests of its fundamental properties. Subject headings: cosmology: observations -large-scale structure of the universe -distance scalecosmological parameters -cosmic microwave background -galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD

Using a catalog of 147,986 galaxy redshifts and fluxes from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), we measure the galaxy luminosity density at z ¼ 0:1 in five optical bandpasses corresponding to the SDSS bandpasses shifted to match their rest-frame shape at z ¼ 0:1. We denote the bands 0.1 u, 0.1 g, 0.1 r, 0.1 i, 0.1 z with eff ¼ ð3216; 4240; 5595; 6792; 8111 GÞ, respectively. To estimate the luminosity function, we use a maximum likelihood method that allows for a general form for the shape of the luminosity function, fits for simple luminosity and number evolution, incorporates the flux uncertainties, and accounts for the flux limits of the survey. We find luminosity densities at z ¼ 0:1 expressed in absolute AB magnitudes in a Mpc 3 to be (À14:10 AE 0:15, À15:18 AE 0:03, À15:90 AE 0:03, À16:24 AE 0:03, À16:56 AE 0:02) in ( 0.1 u, 0.1 g, 0.1 r, 0.1 i, 0.1 z), respectively, for a cosmological model with 0 ¼ 0:3, à ¼ 0:7, and h ¼ 1 and using SDSS Petrosian magnitudes. Similar results are obtained using Sérsic model magnitudes, suggesting that flux from outside the Petrosian apertures is not a major correction. In the 0.1 r band, the best-fit Schechter function to our results has à ¼ ð1:49 AE 0:04Þ Â 10 À2 h 3 Mpc À3 , M à À 5 log 10 h ¼ À20:44 AE 0:01, and ¼ À1:05 AE 0:01. In solar luminosities, the luminosity density in 0.1 r is ð1:84 AE 0:04Þ Â 10 8 h L 0:1 r; Mpc À3 . Our results in the 0.1 g band are consistent with other estimates of the luminosity density, from the Two-Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey and the Millennium Galaxy Catalog. They represent a substantial change ($0.5 mag) from earlier SDSS luminosity density results based on commissioning data, almost entirely because of the inclusion of evolution in the luminosity function model.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is an imaging and spectroscopic survey that will eventually cover approximately one-quarter of the celestial sphere and collect spectra of %10 6 galaxies, 100,000 quasars, 30,000 stars, and 30,000 serendipity targets. In 2001 June, the SDSS released to the general astronomical community its early data release, roughly 462 deg 2 of imaging data including almost 14 million detected objects and 54,008 follow-up spectra. The imaging data were collected in drift-scan mode in five bandpasses (u, g, r, i, and z); our 95% completeness limits for stars are 22.0, 22.2, 22.2, 21.3, and 20.5, respectively. The photometric calibration is reproducible to 5%, 3%, 3%, 3%, and 5%, respectively. The spectra are flux-and wavelength-calibrated, with 4096 pixels from 3800 to 9200 Å at R % 1800. We present the means by which these data are distributed to the astronomical community, descriptions of the hardware used to obtain the data, the software used for processing the data, the measured quantities for each observed object, and an overview of the properties of this data set.

The spectroscopic Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7) galaxy sample represents the final set of galaxies observed using the original SDSS target selection criteria. We analyse the clustering of galaxies within this sample, including both the luminous red galaxy and main samples, and also include the 2‐degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey data. In total, this sample comprises 893 319 galaxies over 9100 deg2. Baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) are observed in power spectra measured for different slices in redshift; this allows us to constrain the distance–redshift relation at multiple epochs. We achieve a distance measure at redshift z= 0.275, of rs(zd)/DV(0.275) = 0.1390 ± 0.0037 (2.7 per cent accuracy), where rs(zd) is the comoving sound horizon at the baryon‐drag epoch, DV(z) ≡[(1 +z)2D2Acz/H(z)]1/3, DA(z) is the angular diameter distance and H(z) is the Hubble parameter. We find an almost independent constraint on the ratio of distances DV(0.35)/DV(0.2) = 1.736 ± 0.065, which is consistent at the 1.1σ level with the best‐fitting Λ cold dark matter model obtained when combining our z= 0.275 distance constraint with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 5‐year (WMAP5) data. The offset is similar to that found in previous analyses of the SDSS DR5 sample, but the discrepancy is now of lower significance, a change caused by a revised error analysis and a change in the methodology adopted, as well as the addition of more data. Using WMAP5 constraints on Ωbh2 and Ωc h2, and combining our BAO distance measurements with those from the Union supernova sample, places a tight constraint on Ωm= 0.286 ± 0.018 and H0= 68.2 ± 2.2 km s−1 Mpc−1 that is robust to allowing Ωk≠ 0 and w≠−1. This result is independent of the behaviour of dark energy at redshifts greater than those probed by the BAO and supernova measurements. Combining these data sets with the full WMAP5 likelihood constraints provides tight constraints on both Ωk=−0.006 ± 0.008 and w=−0.97 ± 0.10 for a constant dark energy equation of state.

We study the luminosity and color dependence of the galaxy 2-point correlation function in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, starting from a sample of 200,000 galaxies over 2500 deg^2. We concentrate on the projected correlation function w(r_p), which is directly related to the real space \xi(r). The amplitude of w(r_p) grows continuously with luminosity, rising more steeply above the characteristic luminosity L_*. Redder galaxies exhibit a higher amplitude and steeper correlation function at all luminosities. The correlation amplitude of blue galaxies increases continuously with luminosity, but the luminosity dependence for red galaxies is less regular, with bright red galaxies more strongly clustered at large scales and faint red galaxies more strongly clustered at small scales. We interpret these results using halo occupation distribution (HOD) models assuming concordance cosmological parameters. For most samples, an HOD model with two adjustable parameters fits the w(r_p) data better than a power-law, explaining inflections at r_p ~ 1-3 Mpc/h as the transition between the 1-halo and 2-halo regimes of \xi(r). The implied minimum mass for a halo hosting a central galaxy above a luminosity threshold L grows as M_min ~ L at low luminosities and more steeply above L_*. The mass at which an average halo has one satellite galaxy brighter than L is M_1 ~ 23 M_min(L). These results imply a conditional luminosity function (at fixed halo mass) in which central galaxies lie far above a Schechter function extrapolation of the satellite population. HOD models nicely explain the joint luminosity-color dependence of w(r_p) in terms of the color fractions of central and satellite populations as a function of halo mass. The inferred HOD properties are in good qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions.Comment: 64 pages, 24 figures. Minor changes to match accepted ApJ versio

We investigate the 21-cm signature that may arise from the intergalactic medium (IGM) prior to the epoch of full reionization (z > 5). In scenarios in which the IGM is reionized by discrete sources of photoionizing radiation, the neutral gas which has not yet been engulfed by an H II region may easily be preheated to temperatures well above that of the cosmic background radiation (CBR), rendering the IGM invisible in absorption against the CBR. We identify three possible preheating mechanisms:(1) photoelectric heating by soft X-rays from QSOs, (2) photoelectric heating by soft X-rays from early galactic halos, and (3) resonant scattering of the continuum UV radiation from an early generation of stars. We find that bright quasars with only a small fraction of the observed comoving density at z ∼ 4 will suffice to preheat the entire universe at z ∼ > 6. We also show that, in a Cold Dark Matter dominated cosmology, the thermal bremsstrahlung radiation associated with collapsing galactic mass halos (10 10 − 10 11 M ⊙ ), may warm the IGM to ∼ 100 K by z ∼ 7. Alternatively, the equivalent of ∼ 10% of the star formation rate density in the local universe, whether in isolated pregalactic stars, dwarf, or normal galaxies, would be capable of heating the entire IGM to a temperature above that of the CBR by Lyα scattering in a small fraction of the Hubble time at z ∼ 6.In the presence of a sufficiently strong ambient flux of Lyα photons, the hyperfine transition in the warmed H I will be excited. A beam differencing experiment would detect a patchwork of emission, both in frequency and in angle across the sky. This patchwork could serve as a valuable tool for understanding the epoch, nature, and sources of the reionization of the universe, and their implications for cosmology. We demonstrate that isolated QSOs will produce detectable signals at meter wavelengths within their "spheres of influence" over which they warm the IGM. As a result of the redshifted 21-cm radiation emitted by warm H I bubbles, the spectrum of the radio extragalactic background will display frequency structure with velocity widths up to 10, 000 km s −1 . Broad beam observations would reveal corresponding angular fluctuations in the sky intensity with δT /T ∼ < 10 −3 on scales θ ∼ 1 • . This scale is set either by the "thermalization distance" from a QSO within which Lyα pumping determines the spin temperature of the IGM or by the quasar lifetime.Radio measurements near 235 and 150 MHz, as will be possible in the near future using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, may provide the first detection of a neutral IGM at 5 ∼ < z ∼ < 10. A next generation facility like the Square Kilometer ArrayInterferometer could effectively open much of the universe to a direct study of the reheating epoch, and possibly probe the transition from a neutral universe to one that is fully ionized.Subject headings: cosmology: theory -diffuse radiation -intergalactic mediumquasars: general Across the I-front the degree of ionization changes sharply on a distance of the order ...