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arXiv · 0902.2372

A New Era in Extragalactic Background Light Measurements: The Cosmic History of Accretion, Nucleosynthesis and Reionization

Asantha Cooray·Alexandre Amblard·Charles Beichman·Dominic Benford·Rebecca Bernstein·James Bock·Mark Brodwin·Volker Bromm·Renyue Cen·Ranga R. Chary·Mark Devlin·Timothy Dolch·Herve Dole·Eli Dwek·David Elbaz·Michael Fall·Giovanni Fazio·Henry Ferguson·Steven Furlanetto·Jonathan Gardner·Mauro Giavalisco·Rudy Gilmore·Nickolay Gnedin·Anthony Gonzalez·Zoltan Haiman·Michael Hauser·Jiasheng Huang·Sergei Ipatov·Alexander Kashlinsky·Brian Keating·Thomas Kelsall·Eiichiro Komatsu·Guilaine Lagache·Louis Levenson·Avi Loeb·Piero Madau·John Mather·Toshio Matsumoto·Shuji Matsuura·Kalevi Mattila·Harvey Moseley·Leonidas Moustakas·S. Peng Oh·Larry Petro·Joel Primack·William Reach·Tom Renbarger·Paul Shapiro·Daniel Stern·Ian Sullivan·Aparna Venkatesan·Michael Werner·Rogier Windhorst·Edward L. Wright·Michael Zemcov
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Abstract

(Brief Summary) What is the total radiative content of the Universe since the epoch of recombination? The extragalactic background light (EBL) spectrum captures the redshifted energy released from the first stellar objects, protogalaxies, and galaxies throughout cosmic history. Yet, we have not determined the brightness of the extragalactic sky from UV/optical to far-infrared wavelengths with sufficient accuracy to establish the radiative content of the Universe to better than an order of magnitude. Among many science topics, an accurate measurement of the EBL spectrum from optical to far-IR wavelengths, will address: What is the total energy released by stellar nucleosynthesis over cosmic history? Was significant energy released by non-stellar processes? Is there a diffuse component to the EBL anywhere from optical to sub-millimeter? When did first stars appear and how luminous was the reionization epoch? Absolute optical to mid-IR EBL spectrum to an astrophysically interesting accuracy can be established by wide field imagingat a distance of 5 AU or above the ecliptic plane where the zodiacal foreground is reduced by more than two orders of magnitude.

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Asantha Cooray, Alexandre Amblard, Charles Beichman, Dominic Benford, Rebecca Bernstein, James Bock, Mark Brodwin, Volker Bromm, Renyue Cen, Ranga R. Chary, Mark Devlin, Timothy Dolch, Herve Dole, Eli Dwek, David Elbaz, Michael Fall, Giovanni Fazio, Henry Ferguson, Steven Furlanetto, Jonathan Gardner, Mauro Giavalisco, Rudy Gilmore, Nickolay Gnedin, Anthony Gonzalez, Zoltan Haiman, Michael Hauser, Jiasheng Huang, Sergei Ipatov, Alexander Kashlinsky, Brian Keating, Thomas Kelsall, Eiichiro Komatsu, Guilaine Lagache, Louis Levenson, Avi Loeb, Piero Madau, John Mather, Toshio Matsumoto, Shuji Matsuura, Kalevi Mattila, Harvey Moseley, Leonidas Moustakas, S. Peng Oh, Larry Petro, Joel Primack, William Reach, Tom Renbarger, Paul Shapiro, Daniel Stern, Ian Sullivan, Aparna Venkatesan, Michael Werner, Rogier Windhorst, Edward L. Wright, Michael Zemcov. 2009-02-13. A New Era in Extragalactic Background Light Measurements: The Cosmic History of Accretion, Nucleosynthesis and Reionization. https://arxiv.org/abs/0902.2372

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