Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Feature Research Articles

On Dark Matter and Dark Energy in CCC+TL Cosmology

Relaxing the temporal constancy constraint on coupling constants in an expanding universe results in Friedmann equations containing terms that may be interpreted as dark energy and dark matter. When tired light (TL) was considered to complement the redshift due to the expanding universe, the resulting covarying coupling constants (CCC+TL) model not only fit the Type Ia supernovae data as precisely as the ΛCDM model, but also resolved concerns about the angular size of cosmic dawn galaxies observed by the James Webb Space Telescope. The model was recently shown to be compliant with the baryon acoustic oscillation features in the galaxy distribution and the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This paper demonstrates that dark energy and dark matter of the standard ΛCDM model are not arbitrary but can be derived from the CCC approach based on Dirac’s 1937 hypothesis. The energy densities associated with dark matter and dark energy turn out to be about the same in the ΛCDM and the CCC+TL models. However, the critical density in the new model can only account for the baryonic matter in the universe, raising concerns about how to account for observations requiring dark matter. We therefore analyze some key parameters of structure formation and show how they are affected in the absence of dark matter in the CCC+TL scenario. It requires reconsidering alternatives to dark matter to explain observations on gravitationally bound structures. The model’s consistency with the CMB power spectrum, BBN element abundances, and other critical observations is yet to be established.

Testing the consistency of early and late cosmological parameters with BAO and CMB data

The recent local measurements of the Hubble constant H0, indicate a significant discrepancy of over 5σ compared to the value inferred from Planck observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In this paper, we try to test the standard cosmological model ΛCDM by testing the consistency of early and late cosmological parameters in the same observed data. In practice, we simultaneously derive the early and late parameters using baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements, which provide both low and high-redshift information. CMB data are also included in the analysis as a “distance prior”, which tracks the same BAO feature and resolve parameter degeneracy. By using the parameter ωm=Ωmh2, we introduce ratio(ωm), defined as the ratio of ωm which are constrained from high and low-redshift measurements respectively, to quantify the consistency between early and late parameters. We obtained a value of ratio(ωm)=1.0069±0.0070, indicating there is no tension between early parameters and late parameters in the framework of ΛCDM model. As a result, our test does not expose the defects of the ΛCDM model. In addition, we forecast the future BAO measurements of ratio(ωm), using several galaxy redshift surveys and 21 cm intensity mapping surveys, and find that these measurements can significantly improve the precision of cosmological parameters.

Testing CCC+TL Cosmology with Observed Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Features

The primary purpose of this paper is to see how well a recently proposed new model fits (a) the position of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) features observed in the large-scale distribution of galaxies and (b) the angular size measured for the sound horizon due to BAO imprinted in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy. The new model is a hybrid model that combines the tired light (TL) theory with a variant of the ΛCDM model in which the cosmological constant is replaced with a covarying coupling constants’ (CCC) parameter α. This model, dubbed the CCC+TL model, can fit the Type Ia supernovae Pantheon+ data as accurately as the ΛCDM model, and also fit the angular size of cosmic dawn galaxies observed by the James Webb Space Telescope, which is in tension with the ΛCDM model. The results we obtained are 151.0 (±5.1) Mpc for the absolute BAO scale at the current epoch, and the angular size of the sound horizon θ sh = 0.°60, matching Planck’s observations at the surface of the last scattering when the baryon density is set to 100% of the matter density and ∣α∣ is increased by 5.6%. It remains to be seen if the new model is consistent with the CMB power spectrum, the Big Bang nucleosynthesis of light elements, and other critical observations.

Model-agnostic cosmological constraints from the baryon acoustic oscillation feature in redshift space

ABSTRACT We develop a framework for self-consistently extracting cosmological information from the clustering of tracers in redshift space, without relying on model-dependent templates to describe the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature. Our approach uses the recently proposed Laguerre reconstruction technique for the BAO feature and its linear point rLP, and substantially extends it to simultaneously model the multipoles ℓ = 0, 2, 4 of the anisotropic galaxy 2-point correlation function (2pcf). The approach is ‘model-agnostic’: it assumes that the nonlinear growth of structure smears the BAO feature by an approximately Gaussian kernel with a smearing scale σv, but does not assume any fiducial cosmology for describing the shape of the feature itself. Using mock observations for two realistic survey configurations assuming Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM), combined with Bayesian parameter inference, we show that the linear point rLP and smearing scale σv can be accurately recovered by our method in both existing and upcoming surveys. The precision of the recovery of rLP is always better than $1{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, while σv can be recovered with $\lesssim 10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ uncertainty provided the linear galaxy bias b is separately constrained, e.g. using weak lensing observations. Our method is also sensitive to the linear growth rate f, albeit with larger uncertainties and systematic errors, especially for upcoming surveys such as DESI. We discuss how our model can be modified to improve the recovery of f, such that the resulting constraints on {f, σv, rLP} can potentially be used as a test of cosmological models including and beyond ΛCDM.

First detection of the BAO signal from early DESI data

ABSTRACT We present the first detection of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) signal obtained using unblinded data collected during the initial 2 months of operations of the Stage-IV ground-based Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). From a selected sample of 261 291 luminous red galaxies spanning the redshift interval 0.4 < z < 1.1 and covering 1651 square degrees with a 57.9 per cent completeness level, we report a ∼5σ level BAO detection and the measurement of the BAO location at a precision of 1.7 per cent. Using a bright galaxy sample of 109 523 galaxies in the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.5, over 3677 square degrees with a 50.0 per cent completeness, we also detect the BAO feature at ∼3σ significance with a 2.6 per cent precision. These first BAO measurements represent an important milestone, acting as a quality control on the optimal performance of the complex robotically actuated, fibre-fed DESI spectrograph, as well as an early validation of the DESI spectroscopic pipeline and data management system. Based on these first promising results, we forecast that DESI is on target to achieve a high-significance BAO detection at sub-per cent precision with the completed 5-yr survey data, meeting the top-level science requirements on BAO measurements. This exquisite level of precision will set new standards in cosmology and confirm DESI as the most competitive BAO experiment for the remainder of this decade.

Evidence for baryon acoustic oscillations from galaxy–ellipticity correlations

The baryon acoustic oscillation feature in the clustering of galaxies or quasars provides a ‘standard ruler’ for distance measurements in cosmology. In this work, we report a 2–3σ signal of the baryon acoustic oscillation dip feature in the galaxy density–ellipticity cross-correlation functions using the spectroscopic sample of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey CMASS, combined with the deep Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Legacy Imaging Surveys for precise galaxy shape measurements. We measure the galaxy–ellipticity correlation functions and model them using the linear alignment model. We constrain the distance DV/rd to redshift 0.57 to a precision of 3–5%, depending on the details of modelling. The galaxy–ellipticity measurement reduces the uncertainty of distance measurement by ~10% on top of that derived from the galaxy–galaxy correlation. More importantly, for future large and deep galaxy surveys, the independent galaxy–ellipticity measurements can help sort out the systematics in the baryon acoustic oscillation studies.

Cosmological forecasts for future galaxy surveys with the linear point standard ruler: Toward consistent BAO analyses far from a fiducial cosmology

The linear point (LP) standard ruler was identified as the basis of a purely geometric method for exploiting the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). The LP exploits the BAO feature imprinted in the galaxy two-point correlation function to measure cosmological distances independent of any specific cosmological model. We forecast the expected precision of future and ongoing spectroscopic galaxy surveys to measure distances leveraging the linear point. We investigate the cosmological implications of our forecasted results. We focus in particular on a relevant working example: the detection of the late-time cosmic acceleration independent of other cosmological probes. Our findings show that, even within the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{CDM}$ standard cosmological paradigm, estimated distances need to be reliable over a very wide parameter range in order to realize their maximum utility. This is particularly relevant if we aim to properly characterize cosmological tensions. The LP is a promising candidate approach to achieve this reliability. In contrast, widely employed procedures in BAO analysis estimate distances keeping fixed cosmological parameters to fiducial values close to cosmic-microwave-background constraints in flat-$\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{CDM}$. It is unclear whether they are purely geometric methods. Moreover, they rely on untested extrapolations to explore the parameter space away from those fiducial flat-$\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{CDM}$ values. We recommend that all BAO methodologies be validated across the full range of models and parameters over which their results are quoted, first by means of linear predictions and then $N$-body simulations.

Complementary cosmological simulations

Context. Cosmic variance limits the accuracy of cosmological N-body simulations, introducing bias in statistics such as the power spectrum, halo mass function, or the cosmic shear. Aims. We provide new methods to measure and reduce the effect of cosmic variance in existing and new simulations. Methods. We ran pairs of simulations using phase-shifted initial conditions with matching amplitudes. We set the initial amplitudes of the Fourier modes to ensure that the average power spectrum of the pair is equal to the cosmic mean power spectrum from linear theory. Results. The average power spectrum of a pair of such simulations remains consistent with the estimated nonlinear spectra of the state-of-the-art methods even at late times. We also show that the effect of cosmic variance on any analysis involving a cosmological simulation can be estimated using the complementary pair of the original simulation. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our novel technique, we simulated a complementary pair of the original Millennium run and quantified the degree to which cosmic variance affected its the power spectrum. The average power spectrum of the original and complementary Millennium simulation was able to directly resolve the baryon acoustic oscillation features.

Accelerating BAO scale fitting using Taylor series

ABSTRACT The Universe is currently undergoing accelerated expansion driven by dark energy. Dark energy’s essential nature remains mysterious: one means of revealing it is by measuring the Universe’s size at different redshifts. This may be done using the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature, a standard ruler in the galaxy two-point correlation function (2PCF). In order to measure the distance scale, one dilates and contracts a template for the 2PCF in a fiducial cosmology, using a scaling factor α. The standard method for finding the best-fitting α is to compute the likelihood over a grid of roughly 100 values of it. This approach is slow; in this work, we propose a significantly faster way. Our method writes the 2PCF as a polynomial in α by Taylor-expanding it about α = 1, exploiting that we know the fiducial cosmology sufficiently well that α is within a few per cent of unity. The likelihood resulting from this expansion may then be analytically solved for the best-fitting α. Our method is 48–85× faster than a directly comparable approach in which we numerically minimize α, and ∼12 000× faster than the standard iterative method. Our work will be highly enabling for upcoming large-scale structure redshift surveys such as that by Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.

Cluster counts

Despite the success of the Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmological model, current estimations of the amplitude of matter fluctuations (σ8) show an appreciable difference between its value inferred from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) angular power spectrum (Cℓ) and those obtained from cluster counts. Neutrinos or a modification of the growth of structures had been previously investigated as the possible origin of this discrepancy. In this work we examine whether further extensions to the ΛCDM model could alleviate the tension. To this end, we derived constraints on the parameters subject to the discrepancy, using CMB Cℓ combined with cluster counts from the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (SZ) sample with a free dark energy equation of state parameter, while allowing the cluster mass calibration parameter (1 − b) to vary. This latter is degenerate with σ8, which translates the discrepancy within the ΛCDM framework into one between (1 − b)∼0.6, corresponding to constraints on σ8 obtained from CMB, and (1 − b)∼0.8, the value adopted for the SZ sample calibration. We find that a constant w, when left free to vary along with large priors on the matter density ([0.1, 1.0]) and the Hubble parameters ([30, 200]), can reduce the discrepancy to less than 2σ for values far below its fiducial w = −1. However, such low values of w are not allowed when we add other probes like the baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature angular diameter distance measured in galaxy clustering surveys. We also found, when we allow to vary in addition to w a modification of the growth rate through the growth index γ, that the tension is alleviated, with the (1 − b) likelihood now centred around the Planck calibration value of ∼0.8. However, here again, combining CMB and cluster counts with geometrical distance probes restores the discrepancy, with the (1 − b) preferred value reverting back to the ΛCDM value of ∼0.6. The same situation is observed when introducing, along with w and γ, further extensions to ΛCDM (e.g., massive neutrinos), although these extensions reduce the tension to 2σ, even when combined with BAO datasets. We also explore other common extensions by comparing two cases: allowing a dynamical w following a CPL parametrisation in addition to a constant growth index, and when the growth index is expanded through a second parameter γ1 along with a constant w. In the former we reach the same conclusions as with the case of a constant w and γ, where the discrepancy was alleviated only if we do not constrain w by BAO, while in the latter case, we observe that introducing γ1 drives (1 − b) towards lower values that would instead increase the discrepancy on σ8. We conclude that none of these common extensions to ΛCDM is able to fix the discrepancy and a misdetermination of the calibration factor is the most preferred explanation. Finally, we investigate the effect on our posteriors from limiting the Hubble constant priors to the usual common adopted range of [30, 100].

Non-linearities in the Lyman-α forest and in its cross-correlation with dark matter halos

Three-dimensional correlations of the Lyman-α (Lyα) forest and cross correlations between the Lyα forest and quasars have been measured on large scales, allowing a precise measurement of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature at redshifts z > 2. These 3D correlations are often modelled using linear perturbation theory, but full-shape analyses to extract cosmological information beyond BAO will require more realistic models capable of describing non-linearities present at smaller scales. We present a measurement of the Lyα forest flux power spectrum from large hydrodynamic simulations — the Sherwood simulations — and compare it to different models describing the small-scale deviations from linear theory. We confirm that the model presented in Arinyo-i-Prats et al. (2015) fits the measured 3D power up to k = 10 h Mpc-1 with an accuracy better than 5%, and show that the same model can also describe the 1D correlations with similar precision. We also present, for the first time, an equivalent study for the cross-power spectrum of halos with the Lyα forest, and we discuss different challenges we face when modelling the cross-power spectrum beyond linear scales. We make all our measured power spectra public in https://github.com/andreufont/sherwoo_p3d. This study is a step towards joint analyses of 1D and 3D flux correlations, and towards using the quasar-Lyα cross-correlation beyond BAO analyses.

BAO scale inference from biased tracers using the EFT likelihood

The physical scale corresponding to baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), the size of the sound horizon at recombination, is precisely determined by CMB experiments. Measuring the apparent size of the BAO scale imprinted in the clustering of galaxies gives us a direct estimate of the angular-diameter distance and the Hubble parameter as a function of redshift. The BAO feature is damped by non-linear structure formation, which reduces the precision with which we can infer the BAO scale from standard galaxy clustering analysis methods. Many methods to undo this damping via the so-called BAO reconstruction have so far been proposed; however, they all rely on backward modeling. In this paper, we present the first results of isotropic BAO inference from rest-frame halo catalogs using forward modeling combined with the EFT likelihood, in the case where the initial phases of the density field are fixed. We show that the remaining systematic bias is less than 2% when we consider cutoff values of Λ ≤ 0.25 h Mpc-1 for all halo samples considered, and below 1% and consistent with zero for all but the most highly biased samples. We also demonstrate that, when compared to the standard power spectrum likelihood approach under the same assumption of fixed phases, the 1σ errors associated to the field level inference of the BAO scale are 1.1 to 3.3 times smaller, depending on the value of the cutoff and the halo sample. Our analysis therefore unveils another promising feature of using field-level inference for high-precision cosmology.

Detecting Baryon Acoustic Oscillations with Third-generation Gravitational Wave Observatories

We explore the possibility of detecting baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) solely from gravitational wave (GW) observations of binary neutron star mergers with third-generation (3G) GW detectors such as the Cosmic Explorer and the Einstein Telescope. These measurements would provide a new independent probe of cosmology. The detection of the BAO peak with current-generation GW detectors (solely from GW observations) is not possible because i) unlike galaxies, the GW mergers are poorly localized, and ii) there are not enough merger events to probe the BAO length scale. With the 3G GW detector network, it is possible to observe binary neutron star mergers per year that are localized well within one square degree in the sky for redshift z ≤ 0.3. We show that 3G observatories will enable precision measurements of the BAO feature in the large-scale two-point correlation function; the effect of BAO can be independently detected at different redshifts, with a log-evidence ratio of ∼23, 17, or 3, favoring a model with a BAO peak at redshift of 0.2, 0.25, or 0.3, respectively, using a redshift bin corresponding to a shell of thickness 150h −1 Mpc.

Streaming velocity effects on the post-reionization 21-cm baryon acoustic oscillation signal

ABSTRACTThe relative velocity between baryons and dark matter in the early Universe can suppress the formation of small-scale baryonic structure and leave an imprint on the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale at low redshifts after reionization. This ‘streaming velocity’ affects the post-reionization gas distribution by directly reducing the abundance of pre-existing mini-haloes ($\lesssim 10^7 {\rm M}_{\bigodot }$) that could be destroyed by reionization and indirectly modulating reionization history via photoionization within these mini-haloes. In this work, we investigate the effect of streaming velocity on the BAO feature in H i 21 cm intensity mapping after reionization, with a focus on redshifts 3.5 ≲ z ≲ 5.5. We build a spatially modulated halo model that includes the dependence of the filtering mass on the local reionization redshift and thermal history of the intergalactic gas. In our fiducial model, we find isotropic streaming velocity bias coefficients bv ranging from −0.0043 at z = 3.5 to −0.0273 at z = 5.5, which indicates that the BAO scale is stretched (i.e. the peaks shift to lower k). In particular, streaming velocity shifts the transverse BAO scale between 0.121 per cent (z = 3.5) and 0.35 per cent (z = 5.5) and shifts the radial BAO scale between 0.167 per cent (z = 3.5) and 0.505 per cent (z = 5.5). These shifts exceed the projected error bars from the more ambitious proposed hemispherical-scale surveys in H i (0.13 per cent at 1σ per Δz = 0.5 bin).

Iterative reconstruction excursions for Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and beyond

ABSTRACT The density field reconstruction technique has been widely used for recovering the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature in galaxy surveys that has been degraded due to non-linearities. Recent studies advocated adopting iterative steps to improve the recovery much beyond that of the standard technique. In this paper, we investigate the performance of a few selected iterative reconstruction techniques focusing on the BAO and the broad-band shape of the two-point clustering. We include redshift-space distortions, halo bias, and shot noise and inspect the components of the reconstructed field in Fourier space and in configuration space using both density field-based reconstruction and displacement field-based reconstruction. We find that the displacement field reconstruction becomes quickly challenging in the presence of non-negligible shot noise and therefore present surrogate methods that can be practically applied to a much more sparse field such as galaxies. For a galaxy field, implementing a debiasing step to remove the Lagrangian bias appears crucial for the displacement field reconstruction. We show that the iterative reconstruction does not substantially improve the BAO feature beyond an aggressively optimized standard reconstruction with a small smoothing kernel. However, we find taking iterative steps allows us to use a small smoothing kernel more ‘stably’, i.e. without causing a substantial deviation from the linear power spectrum on large scales. In one specific example we studied, we find that a deviation of 13 per cent in $P(k\sim 0.1\, h{\rm \,\,Mpc^{-1}})$ with an aggressive standard reconstruction can reduce to 3–4 per cent with iterative steps.

Laguerre reconstruction of the correlation function on baryon acoustic oscillation scales

The baryon acoustic oscillation feature can be used as a standard cosmological ruler. In practice, for subpercent level accuracy on the distance scale, it must be standardized. The physical reason why is understood, so we use this to develop an algorithm which improves the estimated scale. The algorithm exploits the fact that, over the range of scales where the initial correlation function is well fit by a polynomial, the leading order effects which distort the length of the ruler can be accounted for analytically. Tests of the method in numerical simulations show that it provides simple and fast reconstruction of the full shape of the BAO feature, as well as subpercent determination of the linear point in the correlation function of biased tracers with minimal assumptions about the underlying cosmological model or the nature of the observed tracers. Our results also suggest that, for least squares estimators of the correlation function, half-integer generalized Laguerre functions are a particularly useful choice.

The assembly bias of emission-line galaxies

ABSTRACT The next generation of spectroscopic surveys will target emission-line galaxies (ELGs) to produce constraints on cosmological parameters. We study the large-scale structure traced by ELGs using a combination of a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation, a code that computes the nebular emission from H ii regions using the properties of the interstellar medium, and a large-volume, high-resolution N-body simulation. We consider fixed number density samples where galaxies are selected by their H α, [O iii] λ5007, or [O ii] λλ3727–3729 emission-line luminosities. We investigate the assembly bias signatures of these samples, and compare them to those of stellar mass- and star formation rate-selected samples. Interestingly, we find that the [O iii]- and [O ii]-selected samples display scale-dependent bias on large scales and that their assembly bias signatures are also scale dependent. Both these effects are more pronounced for lower number density samples. The [O iii] and [O ii] emitters that contribute most to the scale dependence tend to have a low gas-phase metallicity and are preferentially found in low-density regions. We also measure the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature and the β parameter related to the growth rate of overdensities. We find that the scale of the BAO peak is roughly the same for all selections and that β is scale dependent at large scales. Our results suggest that ELG samples include environmental effects that should be modelled in order to remove potential systematic errors that could affect the estimation of cosmological parameters.

The effect of systematic redshift biases in BAO cosmology

ABSTRACT With the remarkable increase in scale and precision provided by upcoming galaxy redshift surveys, systematic errors that were previously negligible may become significant. In this paper, we explore the potential impact of low-magnitude systematic redshift offsets on measurements of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) feature, and the cosmological constraints recovered from such measurements. Using 500 mock galaxy redshift surveys as our baseline sample, we inject a series of systematic redshift biases (ranging from $\pm 0.2{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ to $\pm 2{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$), and measure the resulting shift in the recovered isotropic BAO scale. When BAO measurements are combined with CMB constraints across a range of cosmological models, plausible systematics introduce a negligible offset on combined fits of H0 and Ωm, and systematics must be an order of magnitude greater than this plausible baseline to introduce a 1σ shift on such combined fits. We conclude that systematic redshift biases are very unlikely to bias constraints on parameters such as H0 provided by BAO cosmology, either now or in the near future. We also detail a theoretical model that predicts the impact of uniform redshift systematics on α, and show this model is in close alignment with the results of our mock survey analysis.

Volume statistics as a probe of large-scale structure

We investigate the application of volume statistics to probe the distribution of underdense regions in the large-scale structure of the Universe. This statistic measures the distortion of Eulerian volume elements relative to Lagrangian ones and can be built from tracer particles using tessellation methods. We apply Voronoi and Delaunay tessellation to study the clustering properties of density and volume statistics. Their level of shot-noise contamination is similar, as both methods take into account all available tracer particles in the field estimator. The tessellation causes a smoothing effect in the power spectrum, which can be approximated by a constant window function on large scales. The clustering bias of the volume statistic with respect to the dark matter density field is determined and found to be negative. We further identify the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) feature in the volume statistic. Apart from being smoothed out on small scales, the BAO is present in the volume power spectrum as well, without any systematic bias. These observations suggest that the exploitation of volume statistics as a complementary probe of cosmology is very promising.

Robustness of baryon acoustic oscillation constraints for early-Universe modifications ofΛCDMcosmology

Baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) provide a robust standard ruler, and can be used to constrain the expansion history of the Universe at low redshift. Standard BAO analyses return a model-independent measurement of the expansion rate and the comoving angular diameter distance as function of redshift, normalized by the sound horizon at radiation drag. However, this methodology relies on anisotropic distance distortions of a fixed, pre-computed template (obtained in a given fiducial cosmology) in order to fit the observations. Therefore, it may be possible that extensions to the consensus $\Lambda$CDM add contributions to the BAO feature that cannot be captured by the template fitting. We perform mock BAO fits to power spectra computed assuming cosmological models which modify the growth of perturbations prior to recombination in order to test the robustness of the standard BAO analysis. We find no significant bias in the BAO analysis for the models under study ($\Lambda$CDM with a free effective number of relativistic species, early dark energy, and a model with interactions between neutrinos and a fraction of the dark matter), even for cases which do not provide a good fit to \textit{Planck} measurements of the cosmic microwave background power spectra. This result supports the use of the standard BAO analysis and its measurements to perform cosmological parameter inference and to constrain exotic models. In addition, we provide a methodology to reproduce our study for different models and surveys, as well as discuss different options to handle eventual biases in the BAO measurements.