Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment (CIBER): A Probe of Extragalactic Background Light from Reionization

Abstract

The Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment (CIBER) is a rocket‐borne absolute photometry imaging and spectroscopy experiment optimized to detect signatures of first‐light galaxies present during reionization in the unresolved IR background. CIBER‐I consists of a wide‐field two‐color camera for fluctuation measurements, a low‐resolution absolute spectrometer for EBL measurements, and a narrow‐band imaging spectrometer to measure and correct scattered emission from the foreground zodiacal cloud. CIBER‐I was successfully flown on February 25th, 2009 and is expected to be flown three more times over the next two years at six month intervals. CIBER‐II is a wide‐field 30 cm imager operating in 4 bands between 0.5 and 2.1 microns. It is designed for a high sigma detection of unresolved IR background fluctuations at the minimum level necessary for reionization. With an etendue (a figure‐of‐merit for survey studies) a factor of 50 to 500 larger than existing IR instruments on satellites, CIBER‐II will carry out the definitive study to establish the surface density of sources responsible for reionization.

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