The 12um ISO-ESO-Sculptor and 24um Spitzer faint counts reveal a population of ULIRG/AGN/dusty massive ellipticals Evolution by types and cosmic star formation

Abstract

Multi-wavelength galaxy number counts provide clues on the nature of galaxy evolution. The interpretation per galaxy type with the new code PEGASE.3 of the 12mu (ISO) and 24mu (Spitzer) faint galaxy counts provide new constraints on the dust and stellar emission. It also reveals the nature of ULIRGs (L/Lsun > 10^12) and informs on the cosmic star formation history and the time-scales for mass build-up. We firstly present the faint galaxy counts at 12um derived from the catalogue of the ISO-ESO-Sculptor Survey (ISO-ESS) in a companion paper (Seymour et al. 2007) which go down to 0.24 mJy after corrections for incompleteness. We check that they are consistent with ISO number counts at 15um. Secondly we show that the ``normal'' scenarios which fit the deep UV-optical-near-IR counts with PEGASE.2 (Fioc et al. 1999), are unsuccessful in modelling the strong excess simultaneously observed in the cumulative and differential counts at 12um, 15um and 24um. Based on observed 12mu and 25mu IRAS luminosity functions and optical/mid-IR colors, we finally succeed in modelling cumulative and differential counts by only changing 9% of normal galaxies (1/3 of the ellipticals) into ultra-bright dusty elliptical galaxies, interpreted as ULIRGs. This ULIRG population has similarities with high-z radio-galaxy hosts. No number density evolution is included. The Herschel observatory will hopefully confirm these results.