Simulations of the cosmic infrared and submillimeter background for future large surveys: I. Presentation and first application to Herschel/SPIRE and Planck/HFI

TL;DR

This paper presents new simulations of the cosmic infrared and submillimeter background to aid future surveys by Herschel and Planck, focusing on source detection, background fluctuations, and clustering detectability.

Contribution

It introduces empirically based simulations including galaxy correlations, used to evaluate detection thresholds and clustering signals for upcoming missions.

Findings

Predicted confusion noise levels for Herschel/SPIRE and Planck/HFI.

Quantified source detection thresholds and completeness levels.

Assessed the detectability of clustering in Planck/HFI power spectra.

Abstract

The coming Planck and Herschel missions will survey the sky at unprecedented angular scales and sensitivities. Simulations are needed for better interpretating the results of the surveys and for testing new methods of, e.g., source extraction and component separation. We present new simulations of the infrared and submillimeter cosmic background, including the correlation between infrared galaxies. The simulations were used to quantify the source-detection thresholds for Herschel/SPIRE and Planck/HFI, as well as to study the detectability of the cosmic infrared background correlated fluctuations. The simulations are based on an empirical model of IR galaxy evolution. For the correlations, we only included the linear clustering, assuming that infrared galaxies are biased tracers of the dark-matter fluctuation density field. We used the simulations with different bias parameters to predict the confusion noise for Herschel/SPIRE and Planck/HFI and the completeness levels. We also discuss the detectability of the linear clustering in Planck/HFI power spectra, including the foreground and backgrounds components. Simulated maps and catalogs are publicly available online at http://www.ias.u-psud.fr/irgalaxies/simulations.php