Inhomogeneous reionization and the polarization of the cosmic microwave background

Abstract

In a universe with inhomogeneous reionization, the ionized patches create a second order signal in the cosmic microwave background polarization anisotropy. This signal originates in the coupling of the free electron fluctuation to the quadruple moment of the temperature anisotropy. We examine the contribution from a simple inhomogeneous reionization model and find that the signal from such a process is below the detectable limits of the Planck Surveyor mission. However t he signal is above the fundamental uncertainty limit from cosmic variance, so th at a future detection with a high accuracy experiment on sub-arcminute scales is possible.

10 pages, 2 eps figures, final version accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Small-scale CMB Temperature and Polarization Anisotropies due to Patchy Reionization
• The Cosmic Microwave Background and the Ionization History of the Universe
• B-mode CMB Polarization from Patchy Screening during Reionization
• The Signature of Patchy Reionization in the Polarization Anisotropy of the CMB
• The bispectrum of polarized galactic foregrounds
• Cluster Masses from CMB and Galaxy Weak Lensing
• The Maximum B-mode Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background from Inhomogeneous Reionization
• Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background from Non-Uniform Reionization
• Reionization on Large Scales II: Detecting Patchy Reionization through Cross Correlation of the Cosmic Microwave Background
• Planck and reionization history: a model selection view
• Reionization and CMB non-Gaussianity
• The Rees-Sciama effect and the primordial nucleosynthesis