We present a measurement of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) in the cross-correlation of triply ionized carbon C IV absorption with the positions of quasars (QSO) and Emission Line Galaxies (ELG). We use quasars and ELGs from the second data release (DR2) of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey. Our data sample consists of 2.5 million quasars, 3.1 million ELGs, and the C IV absorption is measured along the line of sight of 1.5 million high redshift quasars with z>1.3. We measure the isotropic BAO signal at 4.2σ for the CIV×QSO cross-correlation. This translates into a 3.0% precision measurement of the ratio of the isotropic distance scale, DV, and the sound horizon at the drag epoch, rd, with DV/rd(zeff=1.92)=30.3±0.9. We make the first detection of the BAO feature in the CIV×ELG cross-correlation at a significance of 2.5σ and find DV/rd(zeff=1.47)=24.6±1.0.
@article{arxiv.2601.08103,
title = {Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from the C IV Forest with DESI DR2},
author = {Abby Bault and Andrei Cuceu and Julien Guy and J. Aguilar and S. Ahlen and D. Bianchi and A. Brodzeller and D. Brooks and R. Canning and E. Chaussidon and T. Claybaugh and R. de Belsunce and A. de la Macorra and Arjun Dey and P. Doel and S. Ferraro and A. Font-Ribera and J. E. Forero-Romero and E. Gaztañaga and S. Gontcho A Gontcho and C. Gordon and D. Green and G. Gutierrez and C. Hahn and H. K. Herrera-Alcantar and K. Honscheid and M. Ishak and R. Joyce and S. Juneau and D. Kirkby and A. Kremin and C. Lamman and M. Landriau and L. Le Guillou and M. E. Levi and M. Manera and P. Martini and A. Meisner and R. Miquel and J. Moustakas and A. Muñoz-Gutiérrez and S. Nadathur and N. Palanque-Delabrouille and W. J. Percival and Matthew M. Pieri and C. Poppett and F. Prada and I. Pérez-Ràfols and G. Rossi and E. Sanchez and D. Schlegel and H. Seo and J. Silber and D. Sprayberry and G. Tarlé and B. A. Weaver},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.08103},
year = {2026}
}