We analyse the large-scale angular correlation function ( ACF ) of the CMASS luminous galaxies ( LGs ) , a photometric-redshift catalogue based on the Data Release 8 ( DR8 ) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III .
This catalogue contains over 600 000 LGs in the range 0.45 \leq z \leq 0.65 , which was split into four redshift shells of constant width .
First , we estimate the constraints on the redshift-space distortion ( RSD ) parameters b \sigma _ { 8 } and f \sigma _ { 8 } , where b is the galaxy bias , f the growth rate and \sigma _ { 8 } is the normalization of the perturbations , finding that they vary appreciably among different redshift shells , in agreement with previous results using DR7 data .
When assuming constant RSD parameters over the survey redshift range , we obtain f \sigma _ { 8 } = 0.69 \pm 0.21 , which agrees at the 1.5 \sigma level with Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR9 spectroscopic results .
Next , we performed two cosmological analyses , where relevant parameters not fitted were kept fixed at their fiducial values .
In the first analysis , we extracted the baryon acoustic oscillation peak position for the four redshift shells , and combined with the sound horizon scale from 7-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP 7 ) to produce the constraints \Omega _ { m } = 0.249 \pm 0.031 and w = -0.885 \pm 0.145 .
In the second analysis , we used the ACF full shape information to constrain cosmology using real data for the first time , finding \Omega _ { m } = 0.280 \pm 0.022 and f _ { b } = \Omega _ { b } / \Omega _ { m } = 0.211 \pm 0.026 .
These results are in good agreement with WMAP 7 findings , showing that the ACF can be efficiently applied to constrain cosmology in future photometric galaxy surveys .