The Contribution of Faint Galaxy Wings to Source-subtracted Near-infrared Background Fluctuations

TL;DR

This study reanalyzed NICMOS near-infrared images to assess the impact of galaxy wings on background fluctuations, finding that their contribution is minor and does not alter previous conclusions about the sources of these fluctuations.

Contribution

It provides a revised analysis showing that residual galaxy wings contribute minimally to the near-infrared background fluctuations, refining previous estimates.

Findings

Residual galaxy wings account for less than 7% of fluctuations.

Majority of fluctuation power is due to other sources.

Previous conclusions about galaxy wings' contribution remain valid.

Abstract

The source-subtracted, 1.1 and 1.6 {\mu}m NICMOS images used in earlier analyses of the near-infrared Hubble Ultra Deep Field contained residual flux in extended wings of identified sources that contributed an unknown amount to fluctuation power. When compared to the original results, a reanalysis after subtracting this residual flux shows that mean-square and rms fluctuations decrease a maximum of 52 and 31 per cent at 1.6 {\mu}m and 50 and 30 per cent at 1.1 {\mu}m. However, total mean-square fluctuations above 0.5 arcsec only decrease 6.5 and 1.4 per cent at 1.6 and 1.1 {\mu}m, respectively. These changes would not affect any published conclusions based on the prior analyses. These results exclude previous suggestions that extended wings of detected galaxies may be a major contributor to the source-subtracted near-infrared background and confirm that most fluctuation power in these images must be explained by other means.