SPICA’S Challenge: Probing High-Redshift Universe toward the Epoch of Reionization

Abstract

In the coming years, we expect to see ALMA and JWST pushing the frontier of extragalactic IR/submm astronomy beyond the current limit of z ∼ 4 and probably up to z ∼ 10, the epoch of cosmic reionization. The main challenge for SPICA will be whether it can also probe such a high-redshift regime. Here, I discuss such a possibility with various observing strategies, showing that SPICA has a great potential to explore the 4 < z < 10 Universe.