Gruppioni, C.; Ciesla, L.; Hatziminaoglou, E.; Pozzi, F.; Rodighiero, G.; Santini, P.; Armus, L.; Baes, M.; Braine, J.; Charmandaris, V.; Clements, D. L.; Christopher, N.; Dannerbauer, H.; Efstathiou, A.; Egami, E.; Fernández-Ontiveros, J. A.; Fontanot, F.; Franceschini, A.; González-Alfonso, E.; Griffin, M.; Kaneda, H.; Marchetti, L.; Monaco, P.; Nakagawa, T.; Onaka, T.; Papadopoulos, A.; Pearson, C.; Pérez-Fournon, I.; Peréz-González, P.; Roelfsema, P.; Scott, D.; Serjeant, S.; Spinoglio, L.; Vaccari, M.; van der Tak, F.; Vignali, C.; Wang, L.; Wada, T.
Bibliographical reference
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, Volume 34, id.e055 17 pp.
Description
Our current knowledge of star formation and accretion luminosity at high
redshift (z > 3-4), as well as the possible connections between them,
relies mostly on observations in the rest-frame ultraviolet, which are
strongly affected by dust obscuration. Due to the lack of sensitivity of
past and current infrared instrumentation, so far it has not been
possible to get a glimpse into the early phases of the dust-obscured
Universe. Among the next generation of infrared observatories, SPICA,
observing in the 12-350 µm range, will be the only facility that
can enable us to trace the evolution of the obscured star-formation rate
and black-hole accretion rate densities over cosmic time, from the peak
of their activity back to the reionisation epoch (i.e., 3 < z ≲
6-7), where its predecessors had severe limitations. Here, we discuss
the potential of photometric surveys performed with the SPICA
mid-infrared instrument, enabled by the very low level of impact of dust
obscuration in a band centred at 34 µm. These unique unbiased
photometric surveys that SPICA will perform will fully characterise the
evolution of AGNs and star-forming galaxies after reionisation.
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