The dark mark of large-scale structure on the cosmic microwave background.

摘要

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) offers a screen to study the Universe in projection. Large-scale structures leave gravitational imprints on the background radiation through the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. In an accelerating universe, photons following trajectories across large clusters or voids are heated or cooled as the gravitational potential decays. The hot and cold marks left on the radiation field are a direct signature of dark energy in a spatially flat universe.;We use the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to trace large-scale structures and confirm their effect on the cosmic microwave background. We construct a map of the anisotropy over the survey area and find that the pattern is present on the microwave sky. This detection demonstrates that the positive statistical correlation between the galaxy density and the CMB temperature reported in the literature is consistent with the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect under dark energy.;The imprints of individual voids and clusters can be isolated on the cosmic microwave background. By summing the signal from voids and clusters, we overcome the noise of primary fluctuations and produce an image of the average imprint left by the gravitational potential of the structures. Intriguingly, the detection level surpasses the all-sky integrated Sachs-Wolfe measurement. We suggest that the technique may be used as a new probe of dark energy.;Supervoid and supercluster structures could be responsible for anomalous regions on the microwave background. We introduce the method of constrained realization to identify statistically anomalous regions on the sky. Of particular interest is the Cold Spot which could arise from a supervoid structure at low redshift. To test this idea, we conduct a photometric redshift survey of the region to moderate redshift. However, we find no strong evidence that a large void is responsible.