Beyond CMB cosmic variance limits on reionization with the polarized SZ effect

Understand

Upcoming cosmic microwave background (CMB) surveys will soon make the first detection of the polarized Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, the linear polarization generated by the scattering of CMB photons on the free electrons present in collapsed objects.

• Measurement of this polarization along with knowledge of the electron density of the objects allows a determination of the quadrupolar temperature anisotropy of the CMB as viewed from the space-time location of the objects.
• Maps of these remote temperature quadrupoles have several cosmological applications.
• Here we propose a new application: reconstruction of the cosmological reionization history.