CMB spectral distortions and energy release in the early Universe

Abstract

Measuring the spectral deviation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from the blackbody spectrum has become a focus of attention as a probe of the thermal history of the Universe. It has been more than 20 years since COBE/FIRAS's measurement, which showed excellent agreement between the CMB spectrum and a perfect blackbody spectrum. Significant developments in the technology since then have allowed us to improve the sensitivity of the absolute spectrum measurement by a factor of ∼104. Therefore, the physics related to the generation of CMB spectral distortions should now be investigated in greater detail. To probe the physics in the early universe and to open an observational window for new physics, various energy release mechanisms both in and beyond standard cosmology need to be studied. In this paper, we provide a review of the physics of CMB distortions and the energy release that creates CMB distortions in the early universe.