Constraining the reionization history with large angle CMB polarization

Abstract

The first-year WMAP data release showed that the reionization optical depth to CMB photons is greater than previously thought. This follows from unexpectedly high values of the C^TE_l spectrum, for l up to ~30, presumably allowing a measurement of the E-mode polarization spectrum C^E_l sooner than expected. This note aims to test the capability of large-angle polarization experiments to explore the history of the cosmological reionization, considering also the impact of cosmic variance. In particular, here we discuss how well the ionized fraction x_e and the reionization redshift z_r can be separately measured, at various levels of instrumental noise.

to be published in JCAP; replaced with accepted version

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Observational constraints on low redshift evolution of dark energy: How consistent are different observations?
• Approximate Analytic Spectra of Reionized CMB Anisotropies and Polarization generated by Relic Gravitational Waves
• CMB Optical Depth Measurements: Past, Present, Future
• Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization and reionization: constraining models with a double reionization
• Probing Cosmological Reionization through Radio-interferometric Observations of Neutral Hydrogen