No Arabic abstract
Determination of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) at far infrared wavelengths using COBE/DIRBE data is limited by the accuracy to which foreground interplanetary and Galactic dust emission can be modeled and subtracted. Previous determinations of the far infrared CIB (e.g., Hauser et al. 1998) were based on the detection of residual isotropic emission in skymaps from which the emission from interplanetary dust and the neutral interstellar medium were removed. In this paper we use the Wisconsin H-alpha Mapper (WHAM) Northern Sky Survey as a tracer of the ionized medium to examine the effect of this foreground component on determination of the CIB. We decompose the DIRBE far infrared data for five high Galactic latitude regions into H I and H-alpha correlated components and a residual component. We find the H-alpha correlated component to be consistent with zero for each region, and we find that addition of an H-alpha correlated component in modeling the foreground emission has negligible effect on derived CIB results. Our CIB detections and 2 sigma upper limits are essentially the same as those derived by Hauser et al. and are given by nu I_nu (nW m-2 sr-1) < 75, < 32, 25 +- 8, and 13 +- 3 at 60, 100, 140, and 240 microns, respectively. Our residuals have not been subjected to a detailed anisotropy test, so our CIB results do not supersede those of Hauser et al. We derive upper limits on the 100 micron emissivity of the ionized medium that are typically about 40% of the 100 micron emissivity of the neutral atomic medium. This low value may be caused in part by a lower dust-to-gas mass ratio in the ionized medium than in the neutral medium, and in part by a shortcoming of using H-alpha intensity as a tracer of far infrared emission.
New determinations are presented of the cosmic infrared background monopole brightness in the Planck HFI bands from 100 GHz to 857 GHz. Planck was not designed to measure the monopole component of sky brightness, so cross-correlation of the 2015 HFI maps with COBE/FIRAS data is used to recalibrate the zero level of the HFI maps. For the HFI 545 and 857 GHz maps, the brightness scale is also recalibrated. Correlation of the recalibrated HFI maps with a linear combination of Galactic H I and H alpha data is used to separate the Galactic foreground emission and determine the cosmic infrared background brightness in each of the HFI bands. We obtain CIB values of 0.007 +- 0.014, 0.010 +- 0.019, 0.060 +- 0.023, 0.149 +- 0.017, 0.371 +- 0.018, and 0.576 +- 0.034 MJy/sr at 100, 143, 217, 353, 545, and 857 GHz, respectively. The estimated uncertainties for the 353 to 857 GHz bands are about 3 to 6 times smaller than those of previous direct CIB determinations at these frequencies. Our results are compared with integrated source brightness results from selected recent submillimeter and millimeter wavelength imaging surveys.
We compare data from the Diffuse InfraRed Background Experiment (DIRBE) on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite to the the Wainscoat et al. (1992) model of the infrared sky. The model is first compared with broadband K (2.2 microns) star counts. Its success at K gives credence to its physical approach which is extrapolated to the L band (3.5 microns). We have analyzed the histograms of the pixel by pixel intensities in the 2.2 and 3.5 micron maps from DIRBE after subtracting the zodiacal light. The shape of these histograms agrees quite well with the histogram shape predicted using the Wainscoat et al. model of the infrared sky, but the predicted histograms must be displaced by a constant intensity in order to match the data. This shift is the cosmic infrared background, which is 16.9+/-4.4 kJy/sr or 23.1+/-5.9 nW/m^2/sr at 2.2 microns, and 14.4+/-3.7 kJy/sr or 12.4+/-3.2 nW/m^2/sr at 3.5 microns.
We report observation of isotropic interplanetary dust (IPD) by analyzing the infrared (IR) maps of Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) onboard the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) spacecraft. To search for the isotropic IPD, we perform new analysis in terms of solar elongation angle ($epsilon$), because we expect zodiacal light (ZL) intensity from the isotropic IPD to decrease as a function of $epsilon$. We use the DIRBE weekly-averaged maps covering $64^circ lesssim epsilon lesssim 124^circ$ and inspect the $epsilon$-dependence of residual intensity after subtracting conventional ZL components. We find the $epsilon$-dependence of the residuals, indicating the presence of the isotropic IPD. However, the mid-IR $epsilon$-dependence is different from that of the isotropic IPD model at $epsilon gtrsim 90^circ$, where the residual intensity increases as a function of $epsilon$. To explain the observed $epsilon$-dependence, we assume a spheroidal IPD cloud showing higher density further away from the sun. We estimate intensity of the near-IR extragalactic background light (EBL) by subtracting the spheroidal component, assuming the spectral energy distribution from the residual brightness at $12,{rm mu m}$. The EBL intensity is derived as $45_{-8}^{+11}$, $21_{-4}^{+3}$, and $15pm3,{rm nWm^{-2}sr^{-1}}$ at $1.25$, $2.2$, and $3.5,{rm mu m}$, respectively. The EBL is still a few times larger than integrated light of normal galaxies, suggesting existence of unaccounted extragalactic sources.
The cosmic infrared background (CIRB) consists mainly of the integrated light of distant galaxies. In the far-infrared the current estimates of its surface brightness are based on the measurements of the COBE satellite. Independent confirmation of these results is still needed from other instruments. In this paper we derive estimates of the far-infrared CIRB using measurements made with the ISOPHOT instrument aboard the ISO satellite. The results are used to seek further confirmation of the CIRB levels that have been derived by various groups using the COBE data. We study three regions of very low cirrus emission. The surface brightness observed with the ISOPHOT instrument at 90, 150, and 180 um is correlated with hydrogen 21 cm line data from the Effelsberg radio telescope. Extrapolation to zero hydrogen column density gives an estimate for the sum of extragalactic signal plus zodiacal light. The zodiacal light is subtracted using ISOPHOT data at shorter wavelengths. Thus, the resulting estimate of the far-infrared CIRB is based on ISO measurements alone. In the range 150 to 180 um, we obtain a CIRB value of 1.08+-0.32+-0.30 MJy/sr quoting statistical and systematic errors separately. In the 90 um band, we obtain a 2-sigma upper limit of 2.3 MJy/sr. The estimates derived from ISOPHOT far-infrared maps are consistent with the earlier COBE results.
The DIRBE on the COBE spacecraft was designed primarily to conduct systematic search for an isotropic CIB in ten photometric bands from 1.25 to 240 microns. The results of that search are presented here. Conservative limits on the CIB are obtained from the minimum observed brightness in all-sky maps at each wavelength, with the faintest limits in the DIRBE spectral range being at 3.5 microns ( u I_ u < 64 nW/m^2/sr, 95% CL) and at 240 microns ( u I_ u < 28 nW/m^2/sr, 95% CL). The bright foregrounds from interplanetary dust scattering and emission, stars, and interstellar dust emission are the principal impediments to the DIRBE measurements of the CIB. These foregrounds have been modeled and removed from the sky maps. Assessment of the random and systematic uncertainties in the residuals and tests for isotropy show that only the 140 and 240 microns data provide candidate detections of the CIB. The residuals and their uncertainties provide CIB upper limits more restrictive than the dark sky limits at wavelengths from 1.25 to 100 microns. No plausible solar system or Galactic source of the observed 140 and 240 microns residuals can be identified, leading to the conclusion that the CIB has been detected at levels of u I_ u = 25+-7 and 14+-3 nW/m^2/sr at 140 and 240 microns respectively. The integrated energy from 140 to 240 microns, 10.3 nW/m^2/sr, is about twice the integrated optical light from the galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field, suggesting that star formation might have been heavily enshrouded by dust at high redshift. The detections and upper limits reported here provide new constraints on models of the history of energy-releasing processes and dust production since the decoupling of the cosmic microwave background from matter.