Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
May 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011sptz.prop80095w&link_type=abstract
Spitzer Proposal ID #80095
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
The extragalactic background light (EBL), defined as the sky surface brightness of all radiation arising from outside the Milky Way, carries in the 1-5um region the imprint of the nearby Universe, of red-shifted light from the first galaxies, and of any possible pre-galactic contributions. The DIRBE instrument on the COBE satellite has measured the total sky brightness, the Cosmic Infrared Background (CIRB), over the entire sky at 3.6um. The CIRB is the sum of the zodiacal light, galactic starlight, radiation from the ISM, and the EBL. Although the determinations of the EBL are presently limited by uncertainties in the zodiacal light model, experiments now under way can reduce those uncertainties. This Spitzer proposal prepares for that reduction by eliminating other uncertainties. We will use Spitzer to determine the point source components of CIRB at 3.6um, the wavelength of the minimum in the bright foreground from interplanetary dust. We will measure essentially all of the stellar contribution, and more than 80% of the integrated light from resolved galaxies; this can be extrapolated using other Spitzer data to determine IGL. The ultimate objective of this type of study is to search for a currently unknown diffuse component of EBL, DEBL. Symbolically, DEBL = EBL-IGL. In this program, we will execute the following steps aimed at reducing the uncertainties in DEBL once the zodiacal uncertainty in CIRB is minimized and a correction for ISM emission is applied: 1. Cross calibrating DIRBE and Spitzer so that EBL and IGL are on the same flux scale; 2. Reducing the uncertainties in EBL by measuring stars as faint as 19th mag at 3.6um. 3. Determining EBL and IGL at six widely separated positions so that the isotropy - and hence the cosmological significance - of any detection of DEBL can be assessed. We emphasize that this important investigation can be carried out only with Spitzer, and this scientific opportunity is perishable due to Spitzer's finite lifetime.
Arendt Rick
Chary Ranga Ram
Gorjian Varoujan
Hauser Michael
Levenson Louis
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