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    Detection of the pairwise kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect and pairwise velocity with DESI DR1 galaxies and ACT DR6 and Planck CMB data

    Yulin Gong1, Patricio A. Gallardo2, Rachel Bean1, Jenna Moore3, Eve M. Vavagiakis3, Nicholas Battaglia1, Boryana Hadzhiyska4,5, Yun-Hsin Hsu6, Jessica Nicole Aguilar7 et al.

    Steven Ahlen8, Davide Bianchi9,10, David Brooks11, Todd Claybaugh7, Rebecca Canning12, Mark Devlin2, Peter Doel11, Axel de la Macorra13, Simone Ferraro7,14, Andreu Font-Ribera15, Jaime E. Forero-Romero16,17, Enrique Gaztañaga18,19,12, Gaston Gutierrez20, Satya Gontcho A. Gontcho7,21, Julien Guy7, Klaus Honscheid22,23,24, Cullan Howlett25, R. Henry Liu26,7, Mustapha Ishak27, Dick Joyce28, Anthony Kremin7, Claire Lamman24, Michael Levi7, Martin Landriau7, Marc Manera29,30, Aaron Meisner28, Ramon Miquel31,15, Michael D. Niemack32,1, Seshadri Nadathur12, Will Percival33,34,35, Francisco Prada36, Graziano Rossi37, Bernardita Ried Guachalla38,39,40, Eusebio Sanchez41, Hee-Jong Seo42, David Sprayberry28, David Schlegel7, Cristóbal Sifón43, Michael Schubnell44,45, Joseph Harry Silber7, Gregory Tarlé45, Benjamin Alan Weaver28, Rongpu Zhou7, and Hu Zou46

    • 1Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
    • 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 209 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 19104
    • 3Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 27708
    • 4Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HA, United Kingdom
    • 5Kavli Institute for Cosmology Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HA, United Kingdom
    • 6University Observatory, Faculty of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Scheinerstr. 1, 81679 Munich, Germany
    • 7Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
    • 8Department of Physics, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215 USA
    • 9Dipartimento di Fisica “Aldo Pontremoli”, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 16, I-20133 Milano, Italy
    • 10INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via Brera 28, 20122 Milano, Italy
    • 11Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
    • 12Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Dennis Sciama Building, Portsmouth, PO1 3FX, United Kingdom
    • 13Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito de la Investigación Científica, Ciudad Univ ersitaria, Cd. de México C. P. 04510, México
    • 14University of California, Berkeley, 110 Sproul Hall #5800 Berkeley, California 94720, USA
    • 15Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Edifici Cn, Campus UAB, 08193, Bellate rra (Barcelona), Spain
    • 16Departamento de Física, Universidad de los Andes, Cra. 1 No. 18A-10, Edificio Ip, CP 111711, Bogotá, Colombia
    • 17Observatorio Astronómico, Universidad de los Andes, Cra. 1 No. 18A-10, Edificio H, CP 111711 Bogotá, Colombia
    • 18Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), c/Esteve Terradas 1, Edifici RDIT, Campus PMT-UPC, 08860 Castelldefels, Spain
    • 19Institute of Space Sciences, ICE-CSIC, Campus UAB, Carrer de Can Magrans s/n, 08913 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
    • 20Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, PO Box 500, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
    • 21University of Virginia, Department of Astronomy, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA
    • 22Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics, The Ohio State University, 191 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
    • 23Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, 191 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
    • 24The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210 Ohio, USA
    • 25School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
    • 26Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA
    • 27Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W. Campbell Rd., Richardson, Texas 75080, USA
    • 28NSF NOIRLab, 950 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson, Arizona 85719, USA
    • 29Departament de Física, Serra Húnter, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
    • 30Institut de Física d,ÄôAltes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Edifici Cn, Campus UAB, 08193, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
    • 31Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats, Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
    • 32Department of Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853,USA
    • 33Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
    • 34Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline St. North, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada
    • 35Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave W, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
    • 36Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Glorieta de la Astronomía, s/n, E-18008 Granada, Spain
    • 37Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sejong University, 209 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 05006, Republic of Korea
    • 38Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA 94305-4085
    • 39Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, 382 Via Pueblo Mall Stanford, California 94305-4060, USA
    • 40SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory 2575 Sand Hill Road Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
    • 41CIEMAT, Avenida Complutense 40, E-28040 Madrid, Spain
    • 42Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, 139 University Terrace, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA
    • 43Instituto de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Casilla 4059, Valparaíso, Chile
    • 44Department of Physics, University of Michigan, 450 Church Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
    • 45University of Michigan, 500 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
    • 46National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, A20 Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, People’s Republic of China

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    Phys. Rev. D 113, 063538 – Published 16 March, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kkrh-1svk

    Abstract

    We present a 9.3σ detection of the pairwise kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (kSZ) effect by combining a sample of 913,286 Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Data Release 1 (DESI DR1) catalog and coadded Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT DR6) and Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature maps. This represents the highest-significance pairwise kSZ measurement to date. The analysis uses three ACT CMB temperature maps: coadded 150 GHz, total frequency maps, and a component separated Internal Linear Combination (ILC) map, all of which cover 19,000 square degrees of the sky from Advanced ACTPol observations conducted between 2017 and 2022. Comparison of the results of these three maps serves as a consistency check for potential foreground contamination that may depend on the observation frequency. An estimate of the best-fit mass-averaged optical depth is obtained by comparing the pairwise kSZ curve with the linear theory prediction of the pairwise velocity under the best-fit Planck cosmology and is compared with predictions from simulations. This estimate serves as a reference point for future comparisons with thermal SZ–derived optical depth measurements for the same DESI cluster samples, which will be presented in a companion paper. Finally, we employ a machine learning approach, trained on simulations to estimate the optical depth for 456,803 DESI LRG-identified clusters within the simulated mass range (≳1013M⊙). These are combined with the measured kSZ signal to infer the individual cluster peculiar velocities, providing the opportunity to constrain the behavior of gravity and the dark sector over a range of cosmic scales and epochs.

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    Phys. Rev. D 113, 063538– Published 16 March, 2026
    • Received 4 December 2025
    • Accepted 24 February 2026
    Article part of CHORUS
    Accepted manuscript will be available starting 16 March, 2027.
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