Mapping the Most Massive Overdensities through Hydrogen (MAMMOTH). II. Discovery of the Extremely Massive Overdensity BOSS1441 at z = 2.32

Abstract

Cosmological simulations suggest a strong correlation between high optical-depth Ly α absorbers, which arise from the intergalactic medium, and 3D mass overdensities on scales of 10–30 comoving Mpc. By examining the absorption spectra of ∼80,000 QSO sight lines over a volume of 0.1 Gpc 3 in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), we have identified an extreme overdensity, BOSS1441, which contains a rare group of strong Ly α absorbers at . This absorber group is associated with six QSOs at the same redshift on a 30 comoving Mpc scale. Using Mayall/MOSAIC narrowband and broadband imaging, we detect Ly α emitters (LAEs) down to and reveal a large-scale structure of LAEs in this field. Our follow-up LBT observations have spectroscopically confirmed 20 galaxies in the density peak. We show that BOSS1441 has an LAE overdensity of 10.8 ± 2.6 on a 15 comoving Mpc scale, which could collapse to a massive cluster with M  ≳ 10 15 at . This overdensity is among the most massive large-scale structures at discovered to date.