Constraints on the redshift of reionization from CMB data

We use the recent CMB power spectrum measurement by the Maxima experiment (Hanany et al. 2000) to constrain the redshift of reionization z_re. This becomes possible by combining the CMB data with cosmological parameters from various independent measurements, including Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and X-ray cluster data. Most notably, our results provide a robust lower bound on z_re. We find that z_re>15 (8) at the 68% (95%) confidence level, unless the Hubble constant is larger than 75 km/s/Mpc.