Luminous Red Galaxies: Selection and classification by combining optical
  and infrared photometry
  We describe a new method of combining optical and infrared photometry to
select Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) at redshifts $z > 0.6$. We explore this
technique using a combination of optical photometry from CFHTLS and HST,
infrared photometry from the WISE satellite, and spectroscopic or photometric
redshifts from the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey or COSMOS. We present a variety
of methods for testing the success of our selection, and present methods for
optimization given a set of rest-frame color and redshift requirements. We have
tested this selection in two different regions of the sky, the COSMOS and
Extended Groth Strip (EGS) fields, to reduce the effect of cosmic/sample
variance. We have used these methods to assemble large samples of LRGs for two
different ancillary programs as a part of the SDSS-III/ BOSS spectroscopic
survey. This technique is now being used to select $\sim$600,000 LRG targets
for SDSS-IV/eBOSS, which began observations in Fall 2014, and will be adapted
for the proposed DESI survey. We have found these methods can select
high-redshift LRGs efficiently with minimal stellar contamination; this is
extremely difficult to achieve with selections that rely on optical photometry
alone.
