Related papers: Joint QSO-CMB constraints on reionization history
Recent observations have set the first constraints on the epoch of reionization (EoR), corresponding to the formation epoch of the first luminous objects. Studies of Gunn-Peterson (GP) absorption, and related phenomena, suggest a…
The detection of large angular scale $B$-mode in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization signal will open a direct window into not only the primary CMB anisotropies caused by the primordial gravitational waves (PGW) originating…
New results on the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and its polarization based on the first 3 years of data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) have revised the electron scattering optical depth downward…
We introduce a new statistical technique for extracting the inhomogeneous reionization signal from future high-sensitivity measurements of the cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization fields. If reionization is…
Cosmic reionization is driven by the formation of sources of ultraviolet photons, and hence it is an intrinsically asymmetric process, where its earlier stages occur at a slower pace relative to its later stages. Yet most modern cosmic…
We have reanalysed constraints on the equation of state parameter, w_Q = P/rho, of the dark energy, using several cosmological data sets and relaxing the usual constraint w_Q > -1. We find that combining Cosmic Microwave Background, large…
We present a detailed analysis of present and future Cosmic Microwave Background constraints of the value of the fine-structure constant, $\alpha$. We carry out a more detailed analysis of the WMAP first-year data, deriving state-of-the-art…
One of the major goals of future cosmic microwave background (CMB) $B$-mode polarization experiments is the detection of primordial gravitational waves through an unbiased measurement of the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$. Robust detection of…
If dark matter decay or annihilate, a large amount of energy and particles would be released into the cosmic plasma. Therefore, they could modify the thermal and ionization history of our universe, then leave footprints on the cosmic…
The recent low value of Planck (2016) integrated optical depth to Thomson scattering suggests that the reionization occurred fairly suddenly, disfavoring extended reionization scenarios. This will have a significant impact on the 21cm power…
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…
We study the signal in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization anisotropy resulting from patchy reionization. It is well known that the primordial polarization of the CMB is very sensitive to the details of reionization.…
We develop an optimal Bayesian solution for jointly inferring secondary signals in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) originating from gravitational lensing and from patchy screening during the epoch of reionization. This method is able…
We revisit cosmic microwave background (CMB) constraints on the abundance of millicharged particles based on the Planck data. The stringent limit Omega_{mcp}h^2 < 0.001 (95% CL) may be set using the CMB data alone if millicharged particles…
Current data of high-redshift absorption-line systems imply that hydrogen reionization occurred before redshifts of about 5. Previous works on reionization by the first stars or quasars have shown that such scenarios are described by a…
The optical depth $\tau$ is the least well determined parameter in the standard model of cosmology, and one whose precise value is important for both understanding reionization and for inferring fundamental physics from cosmological…
We compute the joint constraints on ten cosmological parameters from the latest CMB measurements. The lack of a significant second acoustic peak in the latest Boomerang and Maxima data favors models with more baryons than Big Bang…
The epoch of the end of reionization and the Thomson optical depth to the cosmic microwave background depend on the power spectrum amplitude on small scales and on the ionizing photon emissivity per unit mass in collapsed halos. In this…
Bright, high redshift ($z>6$) QSOs are powerful probes of the ionisation state of the intervening intergalactic medium (IGM). The detection of Ly$\alpha$ damping wing absorption imprinted in the spectrum of high-z QSOs can provide strong…
We present up-to-date constraints on the value of the fine-structure constant at the epoch of decoupling from the recent observations made by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite. In the framework of models we…