Looking at infrared background radiation anisotropies with Spitzer II. Small scale anisotropies and their implications for new and upcoming space surveys

TL;DR

This study models small-scale infrared background anisotropies using known galaxy populations and halo models, constraining the contributions of new sources and guiding future space survey efforts.

Contribution

It advances empirical reconstruction methods by integrating halo models to accurately attribute small-scale CIB fluctuations to known galaxies and constrains the properties of unknown sources.

Findings

Modeled known galaxies account for most small-scale CIB fluctuations.

High-redshift sources explain large-scale fluctuations from new populations.

Roman surveys are most promising for probing new populations at wavelengths below 2 μm.

Abstract

Spitzer-based source-subtracted cosmic infrared background (CIB) fluctuations at arcminute-to-degree scales indicate the presence of new populations, whereas sub-arcminute power arises from known $z\lesssim 6$ galaxies. We reconstruct the evolution of the near-IR CIB anisotropies on sub-arcminute scales by known galaxy populations. This method is based on, and significantly advanced over, the empirical reconstruction by \cite{Helgason2012} which is combined with the halo model connecting galaxies to their host dark matter (DM) halos. The modeled CIB fluctuations from known galaxies produce the majority of the observed small-scale signal down to statistical uncertainties of $< 10\%$ and we constrain the evolution of the halo mass regime hosting such galaxies. Thus the large-scale CIB fluctuations from new populations are produced by sources with negligible small-scale power. This appears to conflict with the presented Intra-halo light (IHL) models, but is accounted for if the new sources are at high $z$. Our analysis spanning several Spitzer datasets allows us to narrow the estimated contributions of remaining known galaxies to the CIB anisotropies to be probed potentially from surveys by new and upcoming space missions such as Euclid, SPHEREx, and Roman. Of these, the Roman surveys have the best prospects for measuring the source-subtracted CIB and probing the nature of the underlying new populations at $\lambda <2\ \mu$m, followed by Euclid's surveys, while for SPHEREx the source-subtracted CIB signal from them appears significantly overwhelmed by the CIB from remaining known galaxies.