Unified reconstruction of the Lyman-alpha power spectrum with Hamiltonian Monte Carlo
Abstract
The complex geometry of the Ly$α$ forest data has motivated the use of various two-point statistics as alternatives to the three-dimensional power spectrum ($P_{\mathrm{3D}}$), which carries cosmological information in Fourier space. On large scales, the three-dimensional correlation function ($ξ_\mathrm{3D}$) has provided robust measurements of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale at 150~Mpc. On smaller scales, the one-dimensional power spectrum, $P_{\mathrm{1D}}(k_\|)$, has been the primary tool for extracting information. At the same time, the cross-spectrum, $P_\times(θ, k_\|)$, has been introduced to incorporate angular information without the complications caused by survey window functions. We propose an analytical forward-modeling framework to reconstruct $P_{\mathrm{3D}}$ from all these observables, based on the mathematical relation between them and $P_{\mathrm{3D}}$. We demonstrate the performance of our method using a hypothetical mock data vector representative of future Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) measurements. We show that the monopole of $P_{\mathrm{3D}}$ can be reconstructed in 25 $k$ bins between $0.07~\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ and $1.8~\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$, achieving an average precision of $σ_P/P=13\%$ across the bins. Our method can serve as an intermediary for consistency checks, though it is not intended to replace direct $P_{\mathrm{3D}}$ estimation.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Galaxies: Formation
Evolution
Phenomena
Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 4
- Publication date
- 27 January 2026
- Language
- EN