We perform a cross-correlation of the Cosmic Microwave Background ( CMB ) using the third year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP ) data with the 2 Micron All Sky Survey ( 2MASS ) galaxy map ( about 828 000 galaxies with median redshift z \approx 0.07 ) .
One motivation is to detect the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe ( ISW ) effect , expected if the cosmic gravitational potential is time dependent ; for example , as it is in a flat universe with a Dark Energy component .
The measured spherical harmonic cross-correlation signal favours the ISW signal expected in the concordance \Lambda CDM model over that of zero correlation , although both are consistent with the data within 2 \sigma .
Within a flat \Lambda CDM model we find a best fit value of \Omega _ { \Lambda } = 0.85 and \Omega _ { \Lambda } < 0.89 ( 95 % CL ) .
The above limits assume a galaxy bias b _ { g } \big ( \frac { \sigma _ { 8 } } { 0.75 } \big ) \approx 1.40 \pm 0.03 , which we derived directly from the 2MASS auto-correlation .
Another goal is to test if previously reported anomalies in the WMAP data are related to the galaxy distribution ( the so-called “ Axis of Evil ” - AoE ) .
No such anomaly is observed in the 2MASS data nor are there any observed AoE correlations between the 2MASS and WMAP3 data .