Related papers: Constraining the reionization history with large a…
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.…
Details of how the primordial plasma recombined and how the universe later reionized are currently somewhat uncertain. This uncertainty can restrict the accuracy of cosmological parameter measurements from the Cosmic Microwave Background…
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…
Cosmic Microwave Background temperature and polarization anisotropies from Planck have estimated a lower value of the optical depth to reionization ($\tau$) compared to WMAP. A significant period in the reionization history would then fall…
We discuss the effect of matter reionization on the large-angular-scale anisotropy and polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) in the standard CDM model. We separate three cases in which the anisotropy is induced by…
We investigate the role of the radiative effects for the temporal evolution of the reionization fraction by using cosmological Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations. We find that the increase of photo-ionization and photo-heating…
We consider the effectiveness of foreground cleaning in the recovery of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization sourced by gravitational waves for tensor-to-scalar ratios in the range $0<r<0.1$. Using the planned survey area,…
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 discuss upcoming opportunities with cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations during the post-WMAP era. The curl-modes of CMB polarization probe inflationary gravitational waves (IGWs). While a significant source of confusion is…
We represent the reionization history of the universe as a free function in redshift and study the potential for its extraction from CMB polarization spectra. From a principal component analysis, we show that the ionization history…
We review the observable consequences of the epoch of reionization (EoR) on the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and the resulting constraints on the EoR. We discuss how Thomson scattering with the free electrons produced during EoR…
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…
I discuss the physics of polarization in models with early reionization. For sufficiently high optical depth to recombination the polarization is boosted on large scales while it is suppressed on smaller scales. New peaks appear in the…
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 explore the constraints on the history of reionization from Planck 2015 Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data and we derive the forecasts for future CMB observations. We consider a class of monotonic histories of reionization as…
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…
We review the current status and future plans for polarization measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation, as well as the cosmology these measurements will address. After a long period of increasingly sensitive upper limits,…
The free-electron population during the reionized epoch rescatters CMB temperature quadrupole and generates a now well-known polarization signal at large angular scales. While this contribution has been detected in the…
We study CMB secondary anisotropies produced by inhomogeneous reionization by means of cosmological simulations coupled with the radiative transfer code CRASH. The reionization history is consistent with the WMAP Thomson optical depth…
The recent discovery of a high optical depth tau to Thomson scattering from the WMAP data implies that significant reionization took place at redshifts z~15. This discovery has important implications for the sources of reionization, and…