Local patch analysis of ACT DR6 convergence map using morphological statistics

We carry out a comprehensive hierarchical multi-scale morphological analysis to search for anomalous behaviour in the large scale matter distribution using convergence map provided by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Data Release 6. We use a suite of morphological statistics consisting of Minkowski functionals, contour Minkowski tensor and Betti numbers for the analysis, and compute their deviations from the ensemble expectations and median values obtained from isotropic $\Lambda$CDM simulations provided by ACT. To assess the statistical significance of these deviations, we devise a general methodology based on the persistence of the deviations across threshold ranges and spatial resolutions, while taking into account correlations among the statistics. From the analysis of the full dataset, and hemispherical regions, we find consistency with isotropic $\Lambda$CDM simulations provided by ACT. Since deviations in smaller sky regions tend to get washed out when averaged over larger regions, we further analyze smaller sky patches. This localized analysis reveals some patches that exhibit statistically significant deviations which we refer to as 'anomalous'. We find that near the CMB cold spot, both the positive and negative density fluctuations are anomalous, at 99% CL and 95% CL respectively. This region also encompasses an anomalous southern spot previously identified in Planck CMB temperature data. We also carry out a comparison of anomalous patches identified here for ACT data with a previous analysis of the convergence map from Planck. We do not find common patches between the two datasets, which suggest that the anomalous behavior of the Planck data arises from noise in the map. Further investigation of the atypical patches using large scale structure surveys is warranted to determine their physical origin.