Enabling Massive Correlation Functions in the LSST Era (LINCC Tech Talk, 2024 Oct. 10)

Emilio Donoso joins us in this LINCC Tech Talk from 2024 October 10 to talk about large-scale correlation functions. LINCC Tech Talks take place every second Thursday, with more information available here: https://lsstdiscoveryalliance.org/pro...

The abstract for this LINCC Tech Talk was provided by Emilio:
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) presents an unprecedented opportunity to study galaxy clustering through its massive dataset and precise photometric redshifts. However, the scale of the data and challenges in creating suitable masks for random source generation necessitate new approaches to calculating correlation functions, a key statistical tool in cosmology and galaxy evolution. This talk will describe advancements made during the LINCC Incubator 2024 in integrating high-speed pair-counting algorithms with innovative, pixelized hierarchical catalogs (HATS/LSDB) for distributed computation of clustering estimators. We will discuss the algorithms, technologies, and code packages developed, and demonstrate their application in studying the projected cross-correlation between Gaia quasar candidates and a vast galaxy sample extracted from Subaru HSC-SSP, showcasing the potential for LSST-era cosmology research.