No evidence for the cold spot in the NVSS radio survey

TL;DR

This study reevaluates claims of a 'cold spot' in NVSS radio survey data coinciding with WMAP findings, finding no significant evidence after accounting for systematics and statistical biases.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates that previous claims of a radio cold spot are not supported when systematic effects and a posteriori statistical considerations are properly included.

Findings

No significant cold spot detected in NVSS after corrections.

Systematic effects and statistical biases explain previous apparent signals.

Supports consistency of NVSS data with standard cosmological model.

Abstract

We revisit recent claims that there is a "cold spot" in both number counts and brightness of radio sources in the NVSS survey, with location coincident with the previously detected cold spot in WMAP. Such matching cold spots would be difficult if not impossible to explain in the standard LCDM cosmological model. Contrary to the claim, we find no significant evidence for the radio cold spot, after including systematic effects in NVSS, and carefully accounting for the effect of a posteriori choices when assessing statistical significance.