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Probing the Reionization History of the Universe using the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization
Manoj Kaplinghat,Mike Chu,Zoltán Haiman,Gilbert P. Holder,Lloyd Knox, andConstantinos Skordis
© 2003. The AmericanAstronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed inU.S.A.
The Astrophysical Journal,Volume 583,Number 1Citation Manoj Kaplinghatet al 2003ApJ583 24DOI 10.1086/344927
Manoj Kaplinghat
AFFILIATIONS
Department of Physics, 1 Shields Avenue, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
Mike Chu
AFFILIATIONS
Department of Physics, 1 Shields Avenue, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
Zoltán Haiman
AFFILIATIONS
Princeton University Observatory, Princeton, NJ 08544
Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, 550 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027
Hubble Fellow
Gilbert P. Holder
AFFILIATIONS
Institute for Advanced Study, School of Natural Sciences, Olden Lane, Princeton, NJ 08540
Lloyd Knox
AFFILIATIONS
Department of Physics, 1 Shields Avenue, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
Constantinos Skordis
AFFILIATIONS
Department of Physics, 1 Shields Avenue, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
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- Received2002 July 30
- Accepted2002 September 24
Abstract
The recent discovery of a Gunn-Peterson (GP) trough in the spectrum of the redshift 6.28 SDSS quasar has raised the tantalizing possibility that we have detected the reionization of the universe. However, a neutral fraction (of hydrogen) as small as 0.1% is sufficient to cause the GP trough; hence, its detection alone cannot rule out reionization at a much earlier epoch. The cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization anisotropy offers an alternative way to explore the dark age of the universe. We show that for most models constrained by the current CMB data and by the discovery of a GP trough (showing that reionization occurred atz > 6.3),Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) can detect the reionization signature in the polarization power spectrum. The expected 1 σ error on the measurement of the electron optical depth is around 0.03 with a weak dependence on the value of that optical depth. Such a constraint on the optical depth will allowMAP to achieve a 1 σ error on the amplitude of the primordial power spectrum of 6%.MAP with 2 yr (Planck with 1 yr) of observation can distinguish a model with 50% (6%) partial ionization between redshifts of 6.3 and 20 from a model in which hydrogen was completely neutral at redshifts greater than 6.3.Planck will be able to distinguish between different reionization histories even when they imply the same optical depth to electron scattering for the CMB photons.
