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Pseudo-Cℓ approach to kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich stacking

Lea Harscouet1,*, Kevin Wolz1,†, Amy Wayland1, David Alonso1, and Boryana Hadzhiyska2,3

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom
  • 2Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, United Kingdom
  • 3Kavli Institute for Cosmology Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, United Kingdom

  • *Contact author: lea.harscouet@physics.ox.ac.uk
  • †Contact author: kevin.wolz@physics.ox.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 123550 – Published 26 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ctv8-qn22

Abstract

We present a harmonic-space estimator for the cross-correlation between the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (kSZ) effect and the reconstructed galaxy momentum field that offers several practical advantages over the traditional stacking approach. The estimator is easy to deploy using relatively modest computational resources and recovers all information available in the galaxy-kSZ cross-correlation. In particular, by using well-understood power spectrum estimation techniques, its statistical uncertainties, including potential correlated uncertainties with other large-scale structure observables, can be easily and accurately estimated. Moreover, standard kSZ stacking measurements can be reconstructed exactly from the estimator at a lower computational cost, employing harmonic-space, catalog-level techniques to recover all small-scale information.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 123550– Published 26 June, 2026
  • Received 13 January 2026
  • Accepted 2 June 2026
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