Related papers: Delayed Recombination
The cosmic microwave background radiation allows us to measure both the geometry and topology of the universe. It has been argued that the COBE-DMR data already rule out models that are multiply connected on scales smaller than the particle…
In this paper, by considering an absorption probability independent of photon wavelength, we show that current type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and gamma ray burst (GRBs) observations plus high-redshift measurements of the cosmic microwave…
During recombination, the cosmic background radiation is disturbed, in particular, by Lyman-alpha emissions from neutral hydrogen. It is proposed to account for the subsequent time-dependent partial thermalization of the Lyman-alpha energy…
We extend our recent work on the effects of a time-varying fine-structure constant $\alpha$ in the cosmic microwave background, by providing a thorough analysis of the degeneracies between $\alpha$ and the other cosmological parameters, and…
We investigate the effect of potentially large distortions of the relic neutrino spectra on cosmological observables. To that end, we consider a phenomenological model of "gray" spectral distributions, described by a single parameter, which…
Lyman-alpha photons from the first radiating sources in the Universe play a pivotal role in 21-cm radio detections of Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization. Comments are provided on the effect of the hyperfine structure of hydrogen on…
The HeII->HeI recombination of primordial helium plasma (z = 1500 - 3000) is considered in terms of the standard cosmological model. This process affects the formation of cosmic microwave background anisotropy and spectral distortions. We…
We investigate our knowledge of early universe cosmology by exploring how much additional energy density can be placed in different components beyond those in the $\Lambda$CDM model. To do this we use a method to separate early- and…
The notion that dust might have formed the cosmic microwave background (CMB) has been strongly refuted on the strength of four decades of observation and analysis, in favour of recombination at a redshift z ~ 1080. But tension with the data…
Perturbations from inflation evolve into large scale structure of the late universe, and encode abundant cosmic structure formation physics. We allow freedom in the primordial power spectrum, rather than assuming a power law scale…
Strong lensing time-delay systems constrain cosmological parameters via the so-called time-delay distance and the angular diameter distance to the lens. In previous studies, only the former information was used. In this paper, we show that…
We investigate the large-scale inhomogeneities of the hydrogen ionizing radiation field in the Universe at redshift z=3. Using a raytracing algorithm, we simulate a model in which quasars are the dominant sources of radiation. We make use…
The six parameters of the standard $\Lambda$CDM model have best-fit values derived from the Planck temperature power spectrum that are shifted somewhat from the best-fit values derived from WMAP data. These shifts are driven by features in…
Cosmic background radiation, both diffuse and discrete in nature, produced at different cosmic epochs before and after recombination, provides key information on the evolution of cosmic structures. We discuss the main classes of sources…
The WMAP team has recently highlighted the usefulness of combining the Ly-alpha forest constraints with those from the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This combination is particularly powerful as a probe of the primordial shape of the…
We review recent work aimed at showing how global topological defects influence the shape of the angular power spectrum of the CMB radiation on small scales. While Sachs-Wolfe fluctuations give the dominant contribution on angular scales…
Cosmic microwave background measurements have pushed to higher resolution, lower noise, and more sky coverage. These data enable a unique test of the early universe's expansion rate and constituents such as effective number of relativistic…
Polarization observations of the cosmic microwave background with the Cosmic Background Imager from September 2002 to May 2004 provide a significant detection of the E-mode polarization and reveal an angular power spectrum of polarized…
The initial power spectrum of density perturbations, generated during the inflationary epoch, is now constrained by observations on scales $\lambda>5$~Mpc and has a power-law form. The peculiarities of the inflationary process can lead to…
Departures of the energy spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from a perfect blackbody probe a fundamental property of the universe -- its thermal history. Current upper limits, dating back some 25 years, limit such spectral…