Mapping the thermal history of the Universe with the new generation of CMB spectrum space experiments

Abstract

We have studied the implications of the new generation of CMB spectrum space experiments for our knowledge of the thermal history of the Universe. The combination of two experiments with the sensitivity and the frequency coverage jointly forseen for DIMES and FIRAS II will be able to greatly change our vision of the capability of the CMB spectrum information to constrain physical processes at different cosmic ages. The limits on the energy dissipations at the all cosmic times accessible to CMB spectrum investigations (z < z_therm) could be improved by about two order of magnitudes and even dissipation processes with DE/E ~ 10^-6 could be detected and possibly accurately studied. These results are possible because such levels of accuracy on a so wide frequency range allow to remove the approximate degeneracy both between free-free and Bose-Einstein (BE) like distortions and between Comptonization and BE-like distortions. Finally, we discussed the different signatures imprinted on the CMB spectrum by some late astrophysical and particle decay models recently proposed in the literature and possibly related to the reionization of the Universe indicated by WMAP, and compared them with the sensitivity of such classes of CMB space spectrum experiments.