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    Evidence for large baryonic feedback at low and intermediate redshifts from kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich observations with ACT and DESI photometric galaxies

    B. Hadzhiyska1,2,3,*, S. Ferraro2,3, B. Ried Guachalla4,5,6, E. Schaan5,6, J. Aguilar7, S. Ahlen8, N. Battaglia9, J. R. Bond10, D. Brooks11 et al.

    E. Calabrese12, S. K. Choi13, T. Claybaugh7, W. R. Coulton14,15, K. Dawson16, M. Devlin17, B. Dey18, P. Doel11, A. J. Duivenvoorden19, J. Dunkley20,21, G. S. Farren15,14, A. Font-Ribera11,22, J. E. Forero-Romero23,24, P. A. Gallardo25, E. Gaztañaga26,27,28, S. Gontcho Gontcho7, M. Gralla29, L. Le Guillou30, G. Gutierrez31, J. Guy7, J. C. Hill32, R. Hložek33,34, K. Honscheid35,36,37, S. Juneau38, R. Kehoe39, T. Kisner7, A. Kremin7, M. Landriau7, R. H. Liu3, T. Louis40, N. MacCrann15, A. de Macorra41, M. Madhavacheril17, M. Manera42,22, A. Meisner38, R. Miquel43,22, K. Moodley44, J. Moustakas45, T. Mroczkowski46, S. Naess47, J. Newman18, M. D. Niemack48, G. Niz49,50, L. Page20, N. Palanque-Delabrouille51,7, B. Partridge52, W. J. Percival53,54,55, F. Prada56, F. J. Qu15,14,5, G. Rossi57, E. Sanchez58, D. Schlegel7, M. Schubnell59,60, B. Sherwin15, N. Sehgal61, H. Seo62, C. Sifón63, D. Spergel64, D. Sprayberry38, S. Staggs20, G. Tarlé60, C. Vargas65, E. M. Vavagiakis66, B. A. Weaver38, E. J. Wollack67, R. Zhou2, and H. Zou68

    • 1Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA
    • 2Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
    • 3Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
    • 4Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4085, USA
    • 5Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, 382 Via Pueblo Mall Stanford, California 94305-4060, USA
    • 6SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
    • 7Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
    • 8Physics Department, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
    • 9Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
    • 10Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H8, Canada
    • 11Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
    • 12School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, Wales, United Kingdom
    • 13Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA
    • 14Kavli Institute for Cosmology Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, United Kingdom
    • 15DAMTP, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 OWA, United Kingdom
    • 16Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Utah, 115 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA
    • 17Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 209 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
    • 18Department of Physics and Astronomy and Pittsburgh Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Center (PITT PACC), University of Pittsburgh, 3941 O’Hara Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA
    • 19Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, New York, NY 10010, USA and Joseph Henry Laboratories of Physics, Jadwin Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
    • 20Joseph Henry Laboratories of Physics, Jadwin Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
    • 21Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
    • 22Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
    • 23Departamento de Física, Universidad de los Andes, Cra. 1 No. 18A-10, Edificio Ip, CP 111711, Bogotá, Colombia
    • 24Observatorio Astronómico, Universidad de los Andes, Cra. 1 No. 18A-10, Edificio H, CP 111711 Bogotá, Colombia
    • 25Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
    • 26Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), 08034 Barcelona, Spain
    • 27Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Dennis Sciama Building, Portsmouth PO1 3FX, United Kingdom
    • 28Institute of Space Sciences, ICE-CSIC, Campus UAB, Carrer de Can Magrans s/n, 08913 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
    • 29Steward Observatory/Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
    • 30Sorbonne Université, CNRS/IN2P3, Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Energies (LPNHE), FR-75005 Paris, France
    • 31Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, PO Box 500, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
    • 32Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
    • 33Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 Street George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H4, Canada
    • 34Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 Street George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H4, Canada
    • 35Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics, The Ohio State University, 191 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
    • 36Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, 191 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
    • 37The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210 Ohio, USA
    • 38NSF NOIRLab, 950 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson, Arizona 85719, USA
    • 39Department of Physics, Southern Methodist University, 3215 Daniel Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75275, USA
    • 40Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS/IN2P3, IJCLab, 91405 Orsay, France
    • 41Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México Codigo Postal 04510, Mexico
    • 42Departament de Física, Serra Húnter, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
    • 43Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
    • 44Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4001, South Africa
    • 45Department of Physics and Astronomy, Siena College, 515 Loudon Road, Loudonville, New York 12211, USA
    • 46European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, Garching 85748, Germany
    • 47Institute for theoretical astrophysics, University of Oslo, Norway
    • 48Cornell University Physics Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA and Cornell University Astronomy Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
    • 49Departamento de Física, Universidad de Guanajuato - DCI, Codigo Postal 37150, Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico
    • 50Instituto Avanzado de Cosmología A. C., San Marcos 11 - Atenas 202. Magdalena Contreras, 10720. Ciudad de México, Mexico
    • 51IRFU, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
    • 52Department of Physics and Astronomy, Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania 19041, USA
    • 53Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
    • 54Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline Street North, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada
    • 55Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
    • 56Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Glorieta de la Astronomía, s/n, E-18008 Granada, Spain
    • 57Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sejong University, Seoul 143-747, South Korea
    • 58CIEMAT, Avenida Complutense 40, E-28040 Madrid, Spain
    • 59Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
    • 60University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
    • 61Physics and Astronomy Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA
    • 62Department of Physics & Astronomy, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA
    • 63Instituto de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Casilla 4059, Valparaíso, Chile
    • 64Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, 162 5th Avenue, New York, New York 10010, USA
    • 65Instituto de Astrofísica and Centro de Astro-Ingeniería, Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Avenido Vicuña Mackenna 4860, 7820436 Macul, Santiago, Chile
    • 66Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA and Department of Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
    • 67NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA
    • 68National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, A20 Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100012, People’s Republic of China

    • *Contact author: boryanah@alumni.princeton.edu
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    Phys. Rev. D 112, 083509 – Published 6 October, 2025

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kclp-x5j1

    Abstract

    Recent advances in cosmological observations have provided an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the distribution of baryons relative to the underlying matter. In this work, we show that the gas is more extended than the dark matter, and the amount of baryonic feedback at z≲1 disfavors low-feedback models such as that of state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulation IllustrisTNG compared with high-feedback models such as that of the original Illustris simulation. This has important implications for bridging the gap between theory and observations and understanding galaxy formation and evolution. Furthermore, a better grasp of the baryon-dark matter link is critical to future cosmological analyses, which are currently impeded by our limited knowledge of baryonic feedback. Here, we measure the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (kSZ) effect from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, stacked on the luminous red galaxy sample of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) imaging survey. This is the first analysis to use photometric redshifts for reconstructing galaxy velocities. Due to the large number of galaxies comprising the DESI imaging survey, this is the highest signal-to-noise stacked kSZ measurement to date; we detect the signal at 13σ, finding strong evidence that the gas is more spread out than the dark matter, as well as a preference for larger feedback compared to some commonly used state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulations. Our work opens up the possibility of recalibrating large hydrodynamical simulations using the kSZ effect. In addition, our findings highlight the importance of properly accounting for baryonic feedback with future surveys such as LSST through direct probes such as the kSZ, and shed light on long-standing enigmas in astrophysics, such as the “missing baryon” problem.

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    Phys. Rev. D 112, 083509– Published 6 October, 2025
    • Received 22 July 2024
    • Revised 13 January 2025
    • Accepted 27 August 2025
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