A structure in the early Universe at z ∼ 1.3 that exceeds the homogeneity scale of the R-W concordance cosmology

Creators: Clowes, Roger G.; Harris, Kathryn A.; Raghunathan, Srinivasan; Campusano, Luis E.; Söchting, Ilona K.; Graham, Matthew J.

Abstract

A large quasar group (LQG) of particularly large size and high membership has been identified in the DR7QSO catalogue of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. It has characteristic size (volume^(1/3)) ∼500 Mpc (proper size, present epoch), longest dimension ∼1240 Mpc, membership of 73 quasars and mean redshift z = 1.27. In terms of both size and membership, it is the most extreme LQG found in the DR7QSO catalogue for the redshift range 1.0 ≤ z ≤ 1.8 of our current investigation. Its location on the sky is ∼8.∘8 north (∼615 Mpc projected) of the Clowes & Campusano LQG at the same redshift, z = 1.28, which is itself one of the more extreme examples. Their boundaries approach to within ∼2° (∼140 Mpc projected). This new, Huge-LQG appears to be the largest structure currently known in the early Universe. Its size suggests incompatibility with the Yadav et al. scale of homogeneity for the concordance cosmology, and thus challenges the assumption of the cosmological principle.

Additional Information

© 2013 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. Accepted 2012 November 24. Received 2012 November 12; in original form 2012 October 12. First published online: January 11, 2013. LEC received partial support from the Center of Excellence in Astrophysics and Associated Technologies (PFB 06), and from a CONICYT Anillo project (ACT 1122). SR is in receipt of a CONICYT PhD studentship. The referee, Maret Einasto, is thanked for helpful comments. This research has used the SDSS DR7QSO catalogue (Schneider et al. 2010). Funding for the SDSS and SDSSII has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The SDSS website is http://www.sdss.org/. The SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions. The Participating Institutions are the American Museum of Natural History, Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, University of Basel, University of Cambridge, Case Western Reserve University, University of Chicago, Drexel University, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, Johns Hopkins University, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, the Korean Scientist Group, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST), Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, Ohio State University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, the United States Naval Observatory and the University of Washington.

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