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Published September 20, 2010 | Published
Journal Article Open

Contribution of Lensed SCUBA Galaxies to the Cosmic Infrared Background

Abstract

The surface density of submillimeter (sub-mm) galaxies as a function of flux, usually termed the source number counts, constrains models of the evolution of the density and luminosity of starburst galaxies. At the faint end of the distribution, direct detection and counting of galaxies are not possible. However, gravitational lensing by clusters of galaxies allows detection of sources which would otherwise be too dim to study. We have used the largest catalog of sub-mm-selected sources along the line of sight to galaxy clusters to estimate the faint end of the 850 μm number counts; integrating to S = 0.10 mJy, the equivalent flux density at 850 μm is νI_ν = 0.24 ± 0.03 nW m^(–2) sr^(–1). This provides a lower limit to the extragalactic far-infrared background and is consistent with direct estimates of the full intensity from the FIRAS. The results presented here can help to guide strategies for upcoming surveys carried out with single-dish sub-mm instruments.

Additional Information

© 2010 American Astronomical Society. Received 2010 March 17; accepted 2010 July 28; published 2010 August 27. M.Z.'s research was supported in part by a NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship. Many thanks to K. Coppin for the kind sharing of many of the data used in Figures 2 and 3, E. Jullo for helpwith lenstool and other useful discussions, E. Valiante for valuable insights which improved this paper, and A. Conley for catching problems quickly. Thanks also to an anonymous referee whose comments and suggestions substantially improved this work. This work made use of the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre, which is operated by the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, National Research Council of Canada.

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