Probing the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect using embedded lens models

TL;DR

This paper introduces embedded lens models using Fermat potential formalism to explain the observed ringed temperature structures in the ISW effect around cosmic voids, aligning with recent Planck observations.

Contribution

It develops a novel embedded lens theory and models for the ISW effect, providing a better understanding of the temperature rings observed around cosmic voids.

Findings

Models produce hot rings around cold void centers

Adding central over-density matches positive temperature excess

Embedded lens theory effectively models ISW effects

Abstract

The photometry profile of the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect recently obtained by the Planck consortium by stacking patches of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) sky maps around a large number of cosmic voids, contains a cold ring at about half the void's effective radius surrounded by a hot ring near the void's boundary. The source of the temperature structure is assumed to be the ISW effect but the exact cause of the ringed structure is not currently well understood, particularly the outer hot ring. Numerical simulations have suggested that hot/cold ring structures can be produced by motions associated with nonlinear growths of cosmic structures whose gravitational potentials produce the ISW effect. We have recently developed the embedded lens theory and the Fermat potential formalism which can be used to model the ISW effect caused by intervening individual lens inhomogeneities evolving arbitrarily. This theory only requires knowledge of the void's projected mass profile as a function of the passing CMB photons' impact radius and the rate of change of that mass distribution at passage. We present two simple embedded void lens models with evolving mass densities and investigate the ISW effect caused by these lenses. Both models posses expanding mass shells which produce hot rings around central cold regions, consistent with the recent observations. By adding a small over-density at the void's center we can produce the slight positive temperature excess hinted at in Planck's photometric results. We conclude that the embedded lens theory and the Fermat potential formalism is well suited for modeling the ISW effect.