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Related papers: A Projected Estimate of the Reionization Optical D…

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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…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2020-01-31 D. J. Watts , G. E. Addison , C. L. Bennett , J. L. Weiland

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.…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 A. Melchiorri , T. Roy Choudhury , P. Serra , A. Ferrara

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…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2021-03-29 Tashalee S. Billings , Paul La Plante , James E. Aguirre

We study the constraints on reionization from five years of WMAP data, parametrizing the evolution of the average fraction of ionized hydrogen with principal components that provide a complete basis for describing the effects of…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Michael J. Mortonson , Wayne Hu

We compute the expected sensitivity on measurements of optical depth to reionization for a ground-based experiment at Teide Observatory. We simulate polarized partial sky maps for the GroundBIRD experiment at the frequencies 145 and 220…

We present forecasts for cosmological parameters from future Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data measured by the Stage-4 (S4) generation of ground-based experiments in combination with large-scale anisotropy data from the PIXIE…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2017-03-15 Erminia Calabrese , David Alonso , Jo Dunkley

Patchy reionization couples the ionized-bubble morphology to the underlying density field, making the CMB Thomson optical depth sensitive to both the global ionization history and anisotropic fluctuations on the sky. Using the large-volume…

We study the optical depth to reionization in a cosmological setting that includes backreaction from matter inhomogeneities, using the Buchert averaging formalism. We construct a spacetime model consisting of multiple inhomogeneous domains,…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2026-04-16 Shashank Shekhar Pandey , Ruchika , Subhadeep Mukherjee , A. S. Majumdar

In light of the recent inference of a high optical depth to Thomson scattering, tau, from the WMAP data we investigate the effects of extended periods of partial ionization and ask if the value of tau inferred by assuming a single sharp…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-06-15 Gilbert Holder , Zoltan Haiman , Manoj Kaplinghat , Lloyd Knox

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…

We simulate a variety of optical systematics for Taurus, a balloon-borne cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarisation experiment, to assess their impact on large-scale E-mode polarisation measurements and constraints of the optical depth…

The Thomson scattering optical depth to reionisation, $\tau$, one of the six parameters of the $\Lambda$CDM model, is primarily constrained by the large-scale E-mode polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). In this work, we…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2026-03-25 Valentina Genesini , Giacomo Galloni , Luca Pagano , Paolo Campeti , Massimiliano Lattanzi

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…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Michael Shull , Aparna Venkatesan

Inhomogeneous reionization gives rise to angular fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) optical depth tau(n) to the last scattering surface, correlating different spherical harmonic modes and imprinting characteristic…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2011-06-24 Meng Su , Amit P. S. Yadav , Matthew McQuinn , Jaiyul Yoo , Matias Zaldarriaga

We present proof of principle for a two way interplay between physics at very early Universe and late time observations. We find a relation between primordial mechanisms responsible for large scale power suppression in the primordial power…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2017-10-04 Brajesh Gupt

Precise reconstruction of the cosmic microwave background lensing potential can be achieved with deep polarization surveys by iteratively removing lensing-induced $B$ modes. We introduce a lensing spectrum estimator and its likelihood for…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2022-12-13 Louis Legrand , Julien Carron

One of the main goals of modern cosmic microwave background (CMB) missions is to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ accurately to constrain inflation models. Due to ignorance about the reionization history $X_{e}(z)$, this analysis is…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2014-06-03 King Lau , Jiayu Tang , M. -C. Chu

We evaluate the ability of future cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments to measure the power spectrum of large scale structure using quadratic estimators of the weak lensing deflection field. We calculate the sensitivity of upcoming…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Julien Lesgourgues , Laurence Perotto , Sergio Pastor , Michel Piat

Upcoming measurements of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect, which results from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) photons scattering off moving electrons, offer a powerful probe of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). The kSZ signal…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2026-03-24 Farshid Farhadi Khouzani , Abinash Kumar Shaw , Paul La Plante , Bryar Mustafa Shareef , Laxmi Gewali