Cross-correlation of WMAP 3rd year and the SDSS DR4 galaxy survey: new evidence for Dark Energy
Abstract
We cross-correlate the third-year WMAP data with galaxy samples extracted from the SDSS DR4 (SDSS4) covering 13% of the sky, increasing by a factor of 3.7 the volume sampled in previous analyses. The new measurements confirm a positive cross-correlation with higher significance (total signal-to-noise of about 4.7). The correlation as a function of angular scale is well fitted by the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect for LCDM flat FRW models with a cosmological constant. The combined analysis of different samples gives OmegaL=0.80-0.85 (68% Confidence Level, CL) or 0.77-0.86$ (95% CL). We find similar best fit values for OmegaL for different galaxy samples with median redshifts of z ~0.3 and z ~0.5, indicating that the data scale with redshift as predicted by the LCDM cosmology (with equation of state parameter w=-1). This agreement is not trivial, but can not yet be used to break the degeneracy constraints in the w versus OmegaL plane using only the ISW data.
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