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Supervoid Origin of the Cold Spot in the Cosmic Microwave Background

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2015

András Kovács
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A Budapest, Hungary MTA-ELTE EIRSA “Lendület” Astrophysics Research Group, 1117 Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A Budapest, Hungary
István Szapudi
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA
Benjamin R. Granett
Affiliation:
INAF OA Brera, Via E. Bianchi 46, Merate, Italy
Zsolt Frei
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A Budapest, Hungary MTA-ELTE EIRSA “Lendület” Astrophysics Research Group, 1117 Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A Budapest, Hungary
Joseph Silk
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD 21218, USA
Will Burgett
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA
Shaun Cole
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
Peter W. Draper
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
Daniel J. Farrow
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
Nicholas Kaiser
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA
Eugene A. Magnier
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA
Nigel Metcalfe
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
Jeffrey S. Morgan
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA
Paul Price
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
John Tonry
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA
Richard Wainscoat
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA
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Abstract

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We use a WISE-2MASS-Pan-STARRS1 galaxy catalog to search for a supervoid in the direction of the Cosmic Microwave Background Cold Spot. We obtain photometric redshifts using our multicolor data set to create a tomographic map of the galaxy distribution. The radial density profile centred on the Cold Spot shows a large low density region, extending over 10's of degrees. Motivated by previous Cosmic Microwave Background results, we test for underdensities within two angular radii, 5°, and 15°. Our data, combined with an earlier measurement by Granett et al. 2010, are consistent with a large Rvoid=(192 ± 15)h−1 Mpc (2σ) supervoid with δ ≃ −0.13 ± 0.03 centered at z=0.22 ± 0.01. Such a supervoid, constituting a ∼3.5 σ fluctuation in the ΛCDM model, is a plausible cause for the Cold Spot.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2015 

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