CMB Lensing and the WMAP Cold Spot

TL;DR

This paper discusses how future high-resolution CMB experiments could detect lensing signals from hypotheses explaining the WMAP cold spot, such as large voids or collapsing textures, impacting cosmological understanding.

Contribution

It predicts detectable lensing signatures for the first time, linking specific hypotheses about the cold spot to observable signals in upcoming experiments.

Findings

High-resolution CMB experiments can detect lensing from large voids or textures.

Detection of these signals would confirm hypotheses about the cold spot's origin.

Implications for cosmology include understanding large-scale structure and early universe phenomena.

Abstract

Cosmologists have suggested a number of intriguing hypotheses for the origin of the "WMAP cold spot", the coldest extended region seen in the CMB sky, including a very large void and a collapsing texture. Either hypothesis predicts a distinctive CMB lensing signal. We show that the upcoming generation of high resolution CMB experiments such as ACT and SPT should be able to detect the signatures of either textures or large voids. If either signal is detected, it would have profound implications for cosmology.