The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society (천문학회보)
- Volume 46 Issue 2
- /
- Pages.72.2-72.2
- /
- 2021
- /
- 1226-2692(pISSN)
Probing the Early Phase of Reionization through LiteBIRD
- Ahn, Kyungjin (Chosun University) ;
- Sakamoto, Hina (University of Nagoya) ;
- Ichiki, Kiyotomo (University of Nagoya) ;
- Moon, Hyunjin (Chosun University) ;
- Hasegawa, Kenji (University of Nagoya)
- Published : 2021.10.13
Abstract
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.
Keywords