Detection of the Cosmic Far-Infrared Background in the AKARI Deep Field South

TL;DR

This study detects and analyzes the cosmic infrared background using AKARI data, revealing contributions from high-redshift galaxies and their clustering, with results consistent with previous measurements but indicating a possible new galaxy population.

Contribution

First measurement of the absolute brightness and spatial fluctuations of the CIB with AKARI across multiple wavelengths, identifying galaxy clustering components and high-redshift galaxy contributions.

Findings

CIB brightness aligns with COBE data but exceeds Spitzer lower limits.

Detected three components in the power spectrum: shot noise, cirrus, and clustering.

Clustering component resembles ULIRGs at high redshift, indicating their role in CIB fluctuations.

Abstract

We report the detection and measurement of the absolute brightness and spatial fluctuations of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) with the AKARI satellite. We have carried out observations at 65, 90, 140 and 160 um as a cosmological survey in AKARI Deep Field South (ADF-S), which is one of the lowest cirrus regions with contiguous area on the sky. After removing bright galaxies and subtracting zodiacal and Galactic foregrounds from the measured sky brightness, we have successfully measured the CIB brightness and its fluctuations across a wide range of angular scales from arcminutes to degrees. The measured CIB brightness is consistent with previous results reported from COBE data but significantly higher than the lower limits at 70 and 160 um obtained with the Spitzer satellite from the stacking analysis of 24-um selected sources. The discrepancy with the Spitzer result is possibly due to a new galaxy population at high redshift obscured by hot dust. From power spectrum analysis at 90 um, three components are identified: shot noise due to individual galaxies; Galactic cirrus emission dominating at the largest angular scales of a few degrees; and an additional component at an intermediate angular scale of 10-30 arcminutes, possibly due to galaxy clustering. The spectral shape of the clustering component at 90 um is very similar to that at longer wavelengths as observed by Spitzer and BLAST. Moreover, the color of the fluctuations indicates that the clustering component is as red as Ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) at high redshift, These galaxies are not likely to be the majority of the CIB emission at 90 um, but responsible for the clustering component. Our results provide new constraints on the evolution and clustering properties of distant infrared galaxies.