Dissecting the cosmic infra-red background with Herschel/PEP

Berta, S.; Magnelli, B.; Lutz, D.; Altieri, B.; Aussel, H.; Andreani, P.; Bauer, O.; Bongiovanni, A.; Cava, A.; Cepa, J.; Cimatti, A.; Daddi, E.; Dominguez, H.; Elbaz, D.; Feuchtgruber, H.; Förster Schreiber, N. M.; Genzel, R.; Gruppioni, C.; Katterloher, R.; Magdis, G.; Maiolino, R.; Nordon, R.; Pérez-García, A. M.; Poglitsch, A.; Popesso, P.; Pozzi, F.; Riguccini, L.; Rodighiero, G.; Saintonge, A.; Santini, P.; Sanchez-Portal, M.; Shao, L.; Sturm, E.; Tacconi, L. J.; Valtchanov, I.; Wetzstein, M.; Wieprecht, E.
Bibliographical reference

Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 518, id.L30

Advertised on:
7
2010
Number of authors
37
IAC number of authors
4
Citations
121
Refereed citations
107
Description
The constituents of the cosmic IR background (CIB) are studied at its peak wavelengths (100 and 160 μm) by exploiting Herschel/PACS observations of the GOODS-N, Lockman Hole, and COSMOS fields in the PACS evolutionary probe (PEP) guaranteed-time survey. The GOODS-N data reach 3σ depths of ~3.0 mJy at 100 μm and ~5.7 mJy at 160 μm. At these levels, source densities are 40 and 18 beams/source, respectively, thus hitting the confusion limit at 160 μm. Differential number counts extend from a few mJy up to 100-200 mJy, and are approximated as a double power law, with the break lying between 5 and 10 mJy. The available ancillary information allows us to split number counts into redshift bins. At z ≤ 0.5 we isolate a class of luminous sources (LIR ~ 1011 L_&sun;), whose SEDs resemble late-spiral galaxies, peaking at ~130 μm restframe and significantly colder than what is expected on the basis of pre-Herschel models. By integrating number counts over the whole covered flux range, we obtain a surface brightness of 6.36±1.67 and 6.58±1.62 [ nW m-2 sr-1] at 100 and 160 μm, resolving ~45% and ~52% of the CIB, respectively. When stacking 24 μm sources, the inferred CIB lies within 1.1σ and 0.5σ from direct measurements in the two bands, and fractions increase to 50% and 75%. Most of this resolved CIB fraction was radiated at z ≤ 1.0, with 160 μm sources found at higher redshift than 100 μm ones. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.Table 1 and Appendix A are only available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org