Related papers: Constraining Planck scale physics with CMB and Rei…
Upcoming measurements of the high-redshift 21 cm signal from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) are a promising probe of the astrophysics of the first galaxies and of cosmological parameters. In particular, the optical depth $\tau$ to the last…
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 latest measurements of CMB electron scattering optical depth reported by Planck significantly reduces the allowed space of HI reionization models, pointing toward a later ending and/or less extended phase transition than previously…
The scalar mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background is derived in a spatially closed universe from the Boltzmann equation using the line of sight integral method. The EE and TE multipole coefficients have been extracted…
Anisotropy data analysis leaves a significant degeneracy between primeval spectral index (n_s) and cosmic opacity to CMB photons (\tau). Low--l polarization measures, in principle, can remove it. We perform a likelihood analysis to see how…
The oscillation feature in primordial power spectrum (PPS), a fingerprint of not only a wide class of models of inflation but new physics, is of significant theoretical interest, and can be imprinted on the cosmic microwave background…
The CMB temperature power spectrum offers ambiguous evidence for the existence of horizon-scale power in the primordial power spectrum due to uncertainties in spatial curvature and the physics of cosmic acceleration as well as the observed…
Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has found early galaxies producing photons from more efficient ionization than previously assumed. This may suggest a reionization process with a larger reionization optical depth, $\tau_{\rm…
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…
Neutral hydrogen around high-z QSO and an optical depth tau ~ 0.17 can be reconciled if reionization is more complex than a single transition at z ~ 6-8. Tracing its details could shed a new light on the first sources of radiation. Here we…
Dark energy can be studied by its influence on the expansion of the Universe as well as on the growth history of the large-scale structure. In this paper, we follow the growth of the cosmic density field in early dark energy cosmologies by…
TeV string-mass-scale strings have been excluded experimentally at colliders, as their effects have not been observed at the Large Hadron Collider (CERN). On the other hand, higher-scale string theory, with mass scales typically close to…
We investigate how well galaxy cluster number counts can constrain the primordial power spectrum. Measurements of the primary anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) may be limited, by the presence of foregrounds from…
We explore the fundamental limits to which reionization histories can be constrained using only large-scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy measurements. The redshift distribution of the fractional ionization $x_e(z)$ affects…
We examine the constraints on high-redshift star formation, ultraviolet and X-ray pre-ionization, and the epoch of reionization at redshift z_r, inferred from the recent WMAP-5 measurement, tau_e = 0.084 +/- 0.016, of the electron…
Fluctuations in the intensity and polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the large-scale distribution of matter in the universe each contain clues about the nature of the earliest moments of time. The next generation of…
Standard big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) predicts only a trace abundance of lithium and no heavier elements, but some alternatives predict a nonzero primordial metallicity. Here we explore whether CMB measurements may set useful constraints…
In this work we investigate observational signatures of a primordial power spectrum with exponential infrared suppression, motivated by the choice of a non-oscillatory vacuum in a bouncing and inflationary geometry within Loop Quantum…
In this work we explore the power of future large-scale surveys to constrain possible deviations from the standard single-field slow-roll inflationary scenario. Specifically, we parametrize possible fluctuations around the almost…
If the COBE detection of CMB fluctuations is used to normalize the power spectrum of primordial density fluctuations in a cold dark matter--dominated universe, early reionization is likely to result in a substantial diminution of primordial…