Preliminary Target Selection for the DESI Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS)

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will execute a nearly magnitude-limited survey of low redshift galaxies (0.05 ≤ z ≤ 0.4, median z ≍ 0.2). Clustering analyses of this Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) will yield the most precise measurements to date of baryon acoustic oscillations and redshift-space distortions at low redshift. DESI BGS will comprise two target classes: (i) BRIGHT (r &lt; 19.5 mag), and (ii) FAINT (19.5 &lt; r &lt; 20 mag). Here we present a summary of the star-galaxy separation, and different photometric and geometrical masks, used in BGS to reduce the number of spurious targets. The selection results in a total density of ∼800 objects deg<SUP>-2</SUP> for the BRIGHT and ∼600 objects deg<SUP>-2</SUP> for the FAINT selections. A full characterization of the BGS selection can be found in Ruiz-Macias et al.