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Title: CMB signatures of metal-free star formation and Planck 2015 polarization data

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx306· OSTI ID:1535674
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Enrico Fermi Inst.
  3. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Enrico Fermi Inst.; Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
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Standard analyses of the reionization history of the Universe from Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization measurements consider only the overall optical depth to electron scattering (τ), and further assume a step-like reionization history. However, the polarization data contain information beyond the overall optical depth, and the assumption of a step-like function may miss high redshift contributions to the optical depth and leads to biased τ constraints. Accounting for its full reionization information content, we reconsider the interpretation of Planck 2015 Low-Frequency Instrument (LFI) polarization data using simple, yet physically motivated reionization models. We show that these measurements still, in fact, allow a non-negligible contribution from metal-free (Pop-III) stars forming in mini-haloes of mass M ~ 105–106 M⊙ at z ≳ 15, provided this mode of star formation is fairly inefficient. We find that an early, self-regulated phase of Pop-III star formation with a gradual, plateau feature in the ionization history provides a good match to the Planck LFI measurements. In this case, as much as 20 percent of the volume of the Universe is ionized by z ~ 20. Although preferred when the full information content of the data is incorporated, this model would spuriously be disfavoured in the standard analysis. This preference is driven mostly by excess power from E-mode polarization at multipoles of 10 ≲ ℓ ≲ 20, which may reflect remaining systematic errors in the data, a statistical fluctuation or signatures of the first stars. Measurements from the Planck High-Frequency Instrument should be able to confirm or refute this hint and future cosmic-variance-limited E-mode polarization surveys can provide substantially more information on these signatures.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0009924
OSTI ID:
1535674
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 467, Issue 4; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 31 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (3)

Unique signatures of Population III stars in the global 21-cm signal journal May 2018
Self-consistent semi-analytic models of the first stars journal January 2018
Astro2020 Science White Paper: First Stars and Black Holes at Cosmic Dawn with Redshifted 21-cm Observations preprint January 2019

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