Title: Evidence against a supervoid causing the CMB Cold Spot,
Abstract: We report the results of the 2dF-VST ATLAS Cold Spot galaxy redshift survey
(2CSz) based on imaging from VST ATLAS and spectroscopy from 2dF AAOmega over
the core of the CMB Cold Spot. We sparsely surveyed the inner 5$^{\circ}$
radius of the Cold Spot to a limit of $i_{AB} \le 19.2$, sampling $\sim7000$
galaxies at $z<0.4$. We have found voids at $z=$ 0.14, 0.26 and 0.30 but they
are interspersed with small over-densities and the scale of these voids is
insufficient to explain the Cold Spot through the $\Lambda$CDM ISW effect.
Combining with previous data out to $z\sim1$, we conclude that the CMB Cold
Spot could not have been imprinted by a void confined to the inner core of the
Cold Spot. Additionally we find that our 'control' field GAMA G23 shows a
similarity in its galaxy redshift distribution to the Cold Spot. Since the GAMA
G23 line-of-sight shows no evidence of a CMB temperature decrement we conclude
that the Cold Spot may have a primordial origin rather than being due to
line-of-sight effects.