Cambridge University Press (CUP), Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, S306(10), p. 269-272, 2014
DOI: 10.1017/s1743921314013684
Full text: Unavailable
AbstractWe 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.