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A Global Perspective on Star Formation

S. Michael Fall
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Abstract

We outline a method to infer the global history of star formation in galaxies with input only from absorption-line observations of quasars. The application of the method to existing data leads to the conclusion that most stars formed at relatively low redshifts (z <~ 2). We combine the global rate of star formation with stellar population synthesis models to compute the mean comoving emissivity and mean intensity of background radiation from far-UV to far-IR wavelengths. These predictions are consistent with all the available measurements and observational limits, including recent results from HST and COBE.

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S. Michael Fall. 1996-11-20. A Global Perspective on Star Formation. https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9611155

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