Detection of cross-correlation between CMB Lensing and low-density points

TL;DR

This study detects a significant cross-correlation between CMB lensing maps and low-density points from galaxy surveys, confirming LDPs as effective tracers of large-scale structures in the universe.

Contribution

It presents the first high-significance detection of CMB lensing-LDP cross-correlation across multiple redshift bins using DESI data, validating LDPs as competitive large-scale structure tracers.

Findings

Achieved 10-30 sigma detection significance across six redshift bins.

Measured lensing amplitude scaling factors consistent with theoretical models.

Confirmed robustness of detection against various systematic tests.

Abstract

Low Density Points (LDPs, \citet{2019ApJ...874....7D}), obtained by removing high-density regions of observed galaxies, can trace the Large-Scale Structures (LSSs) of the universe. In particular, it offers an intriguing opportunity to detect weak gravitational lensing from low-density regions. In this work, we investigate tomographic cross-correlation between Planck CMB lensing maps and LDP-traced LSSs, where LDPs are constructed from the DR8 data release of the DESI legacy imaging survey, with about $10^6$-$10^7$ galaxies. We find that, due to the large sky coverage (20,000 deg$^2$) and large redshift depth ($z\leq 1.2$), a significant detection ($10\sigma$--$30\sigma$) of the CMB lensing-LDP cross-correlation in all six redshift bins can be achieved, with a total significance of $\sim 53\sigma$ over $ \ell\le1024$. Moreover, the measurements are in good agreement with a theoretical template constructed from our numerical simulation in the WMAP 9-year $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. A scaling factor for the lensing amplitude $A_{\rm lens}$ is constrained to $A_{\rm lens}=1\pm0.12$ for $z<0.2$, $A_{\rm lens}=1.07\pm0.07$ for $0.2<z<0.4$ and $A_{\rm lens}=1.07\pm0.05$ for $0.4<z<0.6$, with the r-band absolute magnitude cut of $-21.5$ for LDP selection. A variety of tests have been performed to check the detection reliability, against variations in LDP samples and galaxy magnitude cuts, masks, CMB lensing maps, multipole $\ell$ cuts, sky regions, and photo-z bias. We also perform a cross-correlation measurement between CMB lensing and galaxy number density, which is consistent with the CMB lensing-LDP cross-correlation. This work therefore further convincingly demonstrates that LDP is a competitive tracer of LSS.