Sunyaev-Zeldovich Fluctuations from the First Stars?

WMAP’s detection of high electron-scattering optical depth τe suggests substantial star formation at high redshift z ∼ 17±5. On the other hand, the recovered σ8 ∼ 0.84± 0.04 disfavors a cluster Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) origin for the observed small-scaleCMB fluctuation excess, which generally requires σ8 ∼ 1.1. Here we consider the effects of high-redshift star formation on the CMB. We derive a fairly model-independent relation between τe and the number of ionizing photons emitted per baryon Nγ , and use this to calibrate the amount of high-redshift supernova activity. The resulting supernova remnants Compton cool against the CMB creating a Compton-y distortion y ∼ few× 10 within observational bounds. However they also create small-scale SZ fluctuations, which could be comparable with SZ fluctuations from unresolved galaxy clusters. This raises the exciting possibility that we have already detected signatures of the first stars not just once, but twice, in the CMB.