Related papers: Reconstructing Patchy Reionization from the Cosmic…
The large-scale CMB B-mode polarization is the direct probe to the low frequency primordial gravitational wave signal. However, unambiguous measurement of this signal requires a precise understanding of the possible contamination. One such…
We derive a constraint on patchy screening of the cosmic microwave background from inhomogeneous reionization, using off-diagonal TB and TT correlations in WMAP-7 temperature/polarization data. We interpret this as a constraint on the rms…
Upcoming cosmic microwave background (CMB) surveys will soon make the first detection of the polarized Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, the linear polarization generated by the scattering of CMB photons on the free electrons present in collapsed…
Hydrogen atoms in the Universe that initially formed at redshift z = 1100 were reionized at 5 < z < 60. It is likely that this transition proceeded through a mixed phase of partial ionization. We develop an analytic approach to calculating…
We examine the constraints on the epoch of reionization (redshift z_r) set by recent WMAP-3 observations of tau_e = 0.09 +/- 0.03, the electron-scattering optical depth of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), combined with models of…
The first-year WMAP data release showed that the reionization optical depth to CMB photons is greater than previously thought. This follows from unexpectedly high values of the C^TE_l spectrum, for l up to ~30, presumably allowing a…
Anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) can be induced during the later stages of cosmic evolution, and in particular during and after the Epoch of Reionisation. Inhomogeneities in the ionised fraction, but also in the baryon…
The measurement of the optical depth to free electrons, tau_r, in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) provides an important constraint on reionization, but is degenerate to more complex reionization models. Small angular-scale CMB…
We present constraints on the patchy reionization by measuring the trispectrum of the Planck 2015 cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies. The patchy reionization leads to anisotropies in the CMB optical depth, and the…
We study the possibility of measuring the optical depth at reionization, $\tau$, without relying on large-scale Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization. Our analysis is driven by the need to obtain competitive measurements that can…
The recent observations of cross temperature-polarization power spectra of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) made by the WMAP satellite are in better agreement with a high value of the Thomson scattering optical depth \tau \approx 0.17.…
Upcoming cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments will measure temperature fluctuations on small angular scales with unprecedented precision. Small-scale CMB fluctuations are a mixture of late-time effects: gravitational lensing,…
The inhomogeneous ionization state of the universe when the first sources of ionizing radiation appeared should lead to anisotropies in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background. We use cosmological simulations of the process by…
The intergalactic helium became fully ionized by the end of cosmic noon ($z\sim2$). Similarly to the reionization of hydrogen, helium reionization is expected to be patchy, driven by luminous quasars that ionize the intergalactic gas in…
In a universe reionized in patches, the Doppler effect from Thomson scattering off free electrons generates secondary cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies. For a simple model with small patches and late reionization, we…
Spectroscopic studies of high-redshift objects and increasingly precise data on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are beginning to independently place strong complementary bounds on the epoch of hydrogen reionization. Parameter…
We present an approximate, analytical calculation of the reionized spectra $C_l^{XX}$ of cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) anisotropies and polarizations generated by relic gravitational waves (RGWs). Three simple models of…
We show that by jointly fitting cosmic microwave background (CMB) and astrophysical data - a compilation of UV luminosity data from the Hubble Frontier Field and neutral hydrogen data from distant sources-, we can infer on the shape of the…
As a result of our limited data on reionization, the total optical depth for electron scattering, $\tau$, limits precision measurements of cosmological parameters from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). It was recently shown that the…
The large-angle polarization anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) arise from Thomson scattering of CMB photons off free electrons in the post-recombination Universe. In the standard $\Lambda$ cold dark matter cosmological…