SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · astro-ph/0609579

A SCUBA/Spitzer Investigation of the Far Infra-Red Extragalactic Background

Abstract

We have measured the contribution of submillimeter and mid-infrared sources to the extragalactic background radiation at 70 and 160um. Specifically, we have stacked flux in 70 and 160um Spitzer Space Telescope (Spitzer) observations of the Canada-UK Deep Sub-millimeter Survey 14h field at the positions of 850um sources detected by SCUBA and also 8 and 24um sources detected by Spitzer. We find that per source, the SCUBA galaxies are the strongest and the 8um sources the weakest contributors to the background flux at both 70 and 160um. Our estimate of the contribution of the SCUBA sources is higher than previous estimates. However, expressed as a total contribution, the full 8um source catalogue accounts for twice the total 24um source contribution and ~10 times the total SCUBA source contribution. The 8um sources account for the majority of the background radiation at 160um with a flux of 0.87+/-0.16 MJy/sr and at least a third at 70um with a flux of 0.103+/-0.019 MJy/sr. These measurements are consistent with current lower limits on the background at 70 and 160um. Finally, we have investigated the 70 and 160um emission from the 8 and 24um sources as a function of redshift. We find that the average 70um flux per 24um source and the average 160um flux per 8 and 24um source is constant over all redshifts, up to z~4. In contrast, the low-redshift half (z<1) of the of 8um sample contributes approximately four times the total 70um flux of the high-redshift half. These trends can be explained by a single non-evolving SED.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

S. Dye, S. A. Eales, M. L. N. Ashby, J. -S. Huang, E. Egami, M. Brodwin, S. Lilly, T. Webb. 2006-11-24. A SCUBA/Spitzer Investigation of the Far Infra-Red Extragalactic Background. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11340.x

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Dark Energy is the Cosmological Quantum Vacuum Energy of Light Particles-The Axion and the Lightest Neutrino

We uncover the general mechanism producing the dark energy(DE). This is only based on well known quantum physics and cosmology. We show that the observed DE originates from the cosmological quantum vacuum of light particles which provides a continuous energy distribution able to reproduce the data. Bosons give positive contributions to the DE while fermions yield negative contributions. As usual in field theory, ultraviolet divergences are subtracted from the physical quantities. The subtractions respect the symmetries of the theory and we normalize the physical quantities to be zero for the Minkowski vacuum. The resulting finite contributions to the energy density and the pressure from the quantum vacuum grow as log a(t) where a(t) is the scale factor, while the particle contributions dilute as 1/a^3(t), as it must be for massive particles. The DE equation of state P = w(z)H turns to be w(z)<-1 with w(z) asymptotically reaching the value -1 from below.A scalar particle can produce the observed DE through its quantum cosmological vacuum provided:(i)its mass is of the order of 10^{-3} eV = 1 meV,(ii) it is very weakly coupled and (iii) it is stable on the time scale of the age of the universe. The axion vacuum thus appears as a natural candidate. The neutrino vacuum (especially the lightest mass eigenstate) can give negative contributions to the DE. We find that w(z=0) is slightly below -1 by an amount ranging from [-1.5 10^{-3}] to [-8 10^{-3}] and we predict the axion mass to be in the range between 4 and 5 meV. We find that the universe will expand in the future faster than the de Sitter universe, as an exponential in the square of the cosmic time. DE arises from the quantum vacua of light particles in FRW cosmological space time in an analogous way to the Casimir effect in Minkowski spacetime with non trivial boundaries.

astro-ph

Scaling of Black Hole Accretion Discs from Gamma-Ray Bursts and Black Hole X-Ray Binaries to Active Galactic Nuclei

I consider how physical processes scale over eight orders of magnitude in black hole mass, from stellar masses in gamma-ray bursts (GRB) and black-hole X-ray binaries (BHXRB) to supermassive active galactic nuclei (AGN). Accretion rates onto stellar mass black holes range over more than sixteen orders of magnitude, from the lower luminosity BHXRB to GRB. These enormous parameter ranges correspond to qualitative as well as quantitative differences in behavior. The fundamental questions involve the balance between nonequilibrium and thermalized plasmas. When energy fluxes exceed a critical value $\sim 10^{29}$ erg/cm$^2$s, as in GRB, a black-body equilibrium pair plasma forms. At the lower fluxes found in AGN, BHXRB and microquasars, accretion power electrodynamically accelerates a small number of very energetic particles, explaining their non-thermal spectra and the high energy gamma-ray emission of blazars. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays may be accelerated by massive black holes, otherwise undetectable, with very low thermal luminosities. New-born fast high-field pulsars may be in the black-body equilibrium regime, resembling SGR in permanent outburst. I also consider the question, significant for the acceleration of nonthermal particles in GRB outflows, of whether collisionless plasmas interpenetrate rather than forming hydrodynamic shocks, and propose this as an alternative to internal shock models of GRB. A new appendix attempts to explain why AGN are, proportionally, more efficient accelerators of energetic particles than stellar mass black holes.

astro-ph