Bibcode
Génova-Santos, Ricardo; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Rebolo, Rafael; Battye, Richard A.; Blanco, Francisco; Davies, Rod D.; Davis, Richard J.; Franzen, Thomas; Grainge, Keith; Hobson, Michael P.; Lasenby, Anthony; Padilla-Torres, Carmen P.; Pooley, Guy G.; Saunders, Richard D. E.; Scaife, Anna; Scott, Paul F.; Titterington, David; Tucci, Marco; Watson, Robert A.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 391, Issue 3, pp. 1127-1136.
Advertised on:
12
2008
Citations
16
Refereed citations
16
Description
We present interferometric imaging at 33GHz, with the new superextended
configuration of the Very Small Array (VSA), of a very deep decrement in
the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature. This decrement is
located in the direction of the Corona Borealis supercluster, at a
position with no known galaxy clusters, and was discovered by a previous
VSA survey. A total area of 3deg2 has now been imaged, with
an angular resolution of 7arcmin and a flux sensitivity of
5mJybeam-1.
These observations confirm the presence of this strong and resolved
negative spot at -37 +/- 5mJybeam-1 (-229 +/- 32μK). This
structure is also present in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
5-year data. The temperature of the W-band (94GHz) data at the position
of the decrement agrees within 0.3σn with that observed
by the VSA at 33GHz and within 0.2σn with the
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) spectrum.
Our analyses show that it is a non-Gaussian feature in the CMB at a
level of 4.4σ, where sigma accounts for primordial CMB
fluctuations, thermal noise and residual radio source contributions. The
probability of finding such a deviation or larger in simulations
including Gaussian CMB is only 0.63per cent. Therefore, an explanation
other than primordial Gaussian CMB is required. We have considered the
possibility of an SZ effect generated in a diffuse, extended warm/hot
gas distribution. This hypothesis is especially relevant, as the
presence of such structures, if confirmed, could provide the location
for a significant fraction of the missing baryons in the Local Universe.
However, from the absence of X-ray emission in this region we conclude
that the whole decrement cannot be generated solely via the SZ effect in
such structure. Therefore, the most plausible scenario is a combination
between a negative CMB feature and a SZ effect, probably generated by a
warm/hot gas distribution.
Related projects
Anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background
The general goal of this project is to determine and characterize the spatial and spectral variations in the temperature and polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background in angular scales from several arcminutes to several degrees. The primordial matter density fluctuations which originated the structure in the matter distribution of the present
Rafael
Rebolo López