Detection of the power spectrum of cosmic microwave background lensing by the atacama cosmology telescope

Sudeep Das, Blake D. Sherwin, Paula Aguirre, John W. Appel, J. Richard Bond, C. Sofia Carvalho, Mark J. Devlin, Joanna Dunkley, Rolando Dünner, Thomas Essinger-Hileman, Joseph W. Fowler, Amir Hajian, Mark Halpern, Matthew Hasselfield, Adam D. Hincks, Renée Hlozek, Kevin M. Huffenberger, John P. Hughes, Kent D. Irwin, Jeff KleinArthur Kosowsky, Robert H. Lupton, Tobias A. Marriage, Danica Marsden, Felipe Menanteau, Kavilan Moodley, Michael D. Niemack, Michael R. Nolta, Lyman A. Page, Lucas Parker, Erik D. Reese, Benjamin L. Schmitt, Neelima Sehgal, Jon Sievers, David N. Spergel, Suzanne T. Staggs, Daniel S. Swetz, Eric R. Switzer, Robert Thornton, Katerina Visnjic, Ed Wollack

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244 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report the first detection of the gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background through a measurement of the four-point correlation function in the temperature maps made by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. We verify our detection by calculating the levels of potential contaminants and performing a number of null tests. The resulting convergence power spectrum at 2° angular scales measures the amplitude of matter density fluctuations on comoving length scales of around 100Mpc at redshifts around 0.5 to 3. The measured amplitude of the signal agrees with Lambda cold dark matter cosmology predictions. Since the amplitude of the convergence power spectrum scales as the square of the amplitude of the density fluctuations, the 4σ detection of the lensing signal measures the amplitude of density fluctuations to 12%.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number021301
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume107
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 5 2011

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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