Probing the Early Phase of Reionization through LiteBIRD

Cosmic reionization imprints its history on the sky map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization. Even though mild, the signature of the reionization history during its early phase (z>15) can also impact the CMB polarization. We forecast the observational capability of the LiteBIRD(Lite(Light) satellite for the studies of B-mode polarization and Inflation from cosmic background Radiation Detection), a truly cosmic-variance limited apparatus. We focus on the capability for such an apparatus to probe the partial optical depth of the CMB photons during z>15. We show that LiteBIRD is able to probe this quantity with a modest to high significance, enabling one to tell how efficient the cosmic reionization and star formation were at z>15.