RESOLVING THE COSMIC FAR-INFRARED BACKGROUND AT 450 AND 850 μm WITH SCUBA-2

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal 2013-10, Vol.776 (2), p.1-13
• Main Authors: Chen, Chian-Chou, Cowie, Lennox L, Barger, Amy J, Casey, Caitlin M, Lee, Nicholas, Sanders, David B, Wang, Wei-Hao, Williams, Jonathan P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arrays; ASTRONOMY; ASTROPHYSICS; ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; Blends; CAMERAS; COSMOLOGY; Counting; FAR INFRARED RADIATION; FERMILAB COLLIDER DETECTOR; Flux; GALAXIES; GALAXY CLUSTERS; GRAVITATIONAL LENSES; MULTIPLICITY; Polymer blends; RESOLUTION; Samples; Statistical methods; TELESCOPES; UNIVERSE; VISIBLE RADIATION; WAVELENGTHS
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/776/2/131

We use the SCUBA-2 submillimeter camera mounted on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope to obtain extremely deep number counts at 450 and 850 mu m. We combine data on two cluster lensing fields, A1689 and A370, and three blank fields, CDF-N, CDF-S, and COSMOS, to measure the counts over a wide flux range at each wavelength. We use statistical fits to broken power law representations to determine the number counts. This allows us to probe to the deepest possible level in the data. At both wavelengths our results agree well with the literature in the flux range over which they have been measured, with the exception of the 850 mu m counts in CDF-S, where we do not observe the counts deficit found by previous single-dish observations. At 450 mu m, we detect significant counts down to ~1 mJy, an unprecedented depth at this wavelength. By integrating the number counts above this flux limit, we measure 113.9 sub(-28.4) super(+49. 7) Jy deg super(-2) of the 450 mu m extragalactic background light (EBL). The majority of this contribution is from sources with S sub(450 mu m) between 1-10 mJy, and these sources are likely to be the ones that are analogous to the local luminous infrared galaxies. At 850 mu m, we measure 37.3 sub(-12.5) super(+21.1) Jy deg super(-2) of the EBL. Because of the large systematic uncertainties on the COBE measurements, the percentage of the EBL we resolve could range from 48%-153% (44%-178%) at 450 (850) mu m. Based on high-resolution Submillimeter Array observations of around half of the 4 [sigma] 850 mu m sample in CDF-N, we find that 125 sub(-6.8) super(+12.1) % of the sources are blends of multiple fainter sources. This is a low multiple fraction, and we find no significant difference between our original SCUBA-2 850 mu m counts and the multiplicity-corrected counts.