Measurement of the pairwise kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect with Planck and BOSS data

Abstract

We present a new measurement of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (kSZ) using Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) and Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) data. Using the "LowZ North/South" galaxy catalogue from BOSS DR12, and the group catalogue from BOSS DR13, we evaluate the mean pairwise kSZ temperature associated with BOSS galaxies. We construct a "Central Galaxies Catalogue" (CGC) which consists of isolated galaxies from the original BOSS data set, and apply the aperture photometry (AP) filter to suppress the primary CMB contribution. By constructing a halo model to fit the pairwise kSZ function, we constrain the mean optical depth to be τ ¯=(0.53 ±0.32 )×10^-4(1.65 σ ) for LowZ North CGC, τ ¯ =(0.30 ±0.57 )×10^-4(0.53 σ ) for LowZ South CGC, and τ ¯ =(0.43 ±0.28 )×10^-4(1.53 σ ) for DR13 Group. In addition, we vary the radius of the AP filter and find that the AP size of 7 arcmin gives the maximum detection for τ ¯. We also investigate the dependence of the signal with halo mass and find τ ¯ =(0.32 ±0.36 )×10^-4(0.8 σ ) and τ ¯ =(0.67 ±0.46 )×10^-4(1.4 σ ) for DR13 Group with halo mass restricted to, respectively, less and greater than its median halo mass, 1 0¹² h^-1M_⊙ . For the LowZ North CGC sample restricted to M_h≳10¹⁴ h^-1M_⊙ there is no detection of the kSZ signal because these high mass halos are associated with the high-redshift galaxies of the LowZ North catalogue, which have limited contribution to the pairwise kSZ signals.