CIB & EBL

Resolving the Cosmic Far-Infrared Background

The Cosmic Far Infrared Background has been measured by Puget et al, 1996 for the first time, and confirmed by Hauser et al., 1998 (see e.g Hauser and Dwek, 2001 for a review). The CIB is the relic emission at IR wavelengths of galaxy formation and evolution. Studying the extragalactic backgrounds (also known as the EBL, Extragalactic Background Light) is one of the observational challenges of today's cosmology.

Buildup of the Cosmic Far-Infrared Background since redshift 2

Spitzer observations in GOODS and COSMOS fields allowed Jauzac et al. 2011  [1]  to reconstruct the buildup of the CIB at 70 and 160 microns since redshift 2. Download here the text file or IDL save file of the $d({\nu}B {\nu})/dz$ vs z shown in figure 9. The CIB Buildup since redshift.

References

  1. [Jauzac2011] Jauzac M., Dole H., Le Floc'h E., Aussel H., Caputi K., Ilbert O., Salvato M., Bavouzet N., Beelen A., Béthermin M. et al.. 
    2011.  {The cosmic far-infrared background buildup since redshift 2 at 70 and 160 microns in the COSMOS and GOODS fields}. \aap. 525:A52.

CIB brighteness from Spitzer legacy number counts

The Spitzer observations at 24 microns resolves 80% of the CIB at this wavelength. We estimate the total CIB brighteness from our legacy counts (Bethermin et al., 2010a, AandA). We extrapolate the faint-end slope of the counts to estimate the contribution of non-detected populations. At 70 and 160, the confusion limits the depth of Spitzer observations. 
We use a stacking analysis with 24 microns as a prior to produce deep counts. We then obtain an estimation of the CIB brighteness from these counts. The CIB Resolved Contribution of sources brighter than Scut to the CIB at 24, 70 and 160 microns (from Bethermin, Dole, Beelen and Aussel, 2010, AandA). A new SED of the EBL has been derived (see below). Download the CIB contributions as a function of flux density Scut on Spitzer source counts web page

Stacking 24um sources to estimate the Cosmic Far-Infrared Background

Dole et al (2006, AandA, 451, 417) resolved the Cosmic IR Background in the Far-Infrared, and compiled the latest observations of the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL), in particular for the Cosmic Optical Background (COB) and the Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB).

Load H. Dole's presentation (June 2006) explaining how Spitzer resolved the CIB. You can use these slides without permission as long as you cite the authors and references. [pdf][ppt]

You can also read the joint US and French April 2006 Press Release (NASA/SSC and CNRS/INSU)