The Cosmic Infrared Background: Measurements and Implications

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The cosmic infrared background records much of the radiant energy released by processes of structure formation that have occurred since the decoupling of matter and radiation following the Big Bang. In the past few years, data from the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) mission provided the first measurements of this background, with additional constraints coming from studies of the attenuation of TeV γ-rays. At the same time there has been rapid progress in resolving a significant fraction of this background with the deep galaxy counts at infrared wavelengths from the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) instruments and at submillimeter wavelengths from the Submillimeter Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) instrument. This article reviews the measurements of the infrared background and sources contributing to it, and discusses the implications for past and present cosmic processes.

Perspectives of high-energy neutrino astronomy

“…The bolometric average power density associated with stellar light has been estimated by Hauser and Dwek [28] as: (13) this is also in good agreement with the estimate of Fukugita and Peebles [26] for the B-band optical luminosity of stars. This power implies that the total mass density gone into the star formation [26] is:…”

Effects of spatial fluctuations in the extragalactic background light on hard gamma-ray spectra

“…Contributions from off-main sequence stars are ignored. Since the total contribution of quasars and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to the optical and the infrared regime of the EBL spectrum is 10% − 20% at maximum (Hauser & Dwek 2001) the contributions of AGNs are ignored by RDF09 and in our model as well.…”

The clustering evolution of dusty star-forming galaxies

“…Almaini, Lawrence & Boyle 1999;Silva, Maiolino & Granato 2004), and has a similar energy density to the background at UV/optical wavelengths (e.g. Hauser & Dwek 2001;Dole et al 2006). This implies that most of the star formation over the history of the Universe has been obscured by dust.…”