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We report new limits on the absolute brightness and spatial fluctuations of the cosmic infrared background (C1B) via the AKARI satellite. We carried out observations at 65,90, 140, and 160 µm as one of the lowest cirrus regions with a contiguous area of the sky. After removing bright galaxies and subtracting zodiacal and Galactic foregrounds from the measured sky brightness, we successfully measured the CIB brightness and its fluctuations across a wide range of angular scales, from arcminutes to degrees. The measured CIB brightness is consistent with previous results reported from COBE data, but significantly higher than the lower limits at 70 and 160 µm obtained via Spitzer from the stacking analysis of selected 24 µm sources. The discrepancy with the Spitzer result is possibly due to a new galaxy population at high redshift obscured by hot dust or unknown diffuse emission. From a power spectrum analysis at 90 µm, two components were identified: the CIB fluctuations with shot noise due to individual galaxies in a small angular scale from the beam size up to 10 arcminutes. and Galactic cirrus emission dominating at the largest angular scales of a few degrees. The overall shape of the power spectrum at 90 µm is very similar to that at longer wavelengths, as observed by Spitzer and the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST). Our power spectrum, with an intermediate angular scale of 10-30 arcminutes, gives a firm upper limit for galaxy clustering, which was found by Spitzer and BLAST. Moreover, the color of the CIB fluctuations, which is obtained by combining our data with the previous results, is as red as ultra-luminous infrared galaxies at high redshift. These galaxies are not likely to provide the majority of the CIB emission at 90 µm, but are responsible for the fluctuations. Our results provide new constraints on the evolution and clustering properties of distant infrared galaxies and any diffuse emission from the early universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Galaxies' rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) properties are often used to directly infer the degree to which dust obscuration affects the measurement of star formation rates (SFRs). While much recent work has focused on calibrating dust attenuation in galaxies selected at rest-frame ultraviolet wavelengths, locally and at high-z, here we investigate attenuation in dusty, star forming galaxies (DSFGs) selected at far-infrared wavelengths. By combining multiwavelength coverage across 0.15-500 μm in the COSMOS field, in particular making use of Herschel imaging, and a rich data set on local galaxies, we find an empirical variation in the relationship between the rest-frame UV slope (β) and the ratio of infrared-to-ultraviolet emission (LIR/LUV ≡ IRX) as a function of infrared luminosity, or total SFR. Both locally and at high-z, galaxies above SFR ≳ 50 M☼ yr–1 deviate from the nominal IRX-β relation toward bluer colors by a factor proportional to their increasing IR luminosity. We also estimate contamination rates of DSFGs on high-z dropout searches of ≪1% at z ≲ 4-10, providing independent verification that contamination from very dusty foreground galaxies is low in Lyman-break galaxy searches. Overall, our results are consistent with the physical interpretation that DSFGs, e.g., galaxies with >50 M☼ yr–1, are dominated at all epochs by short-lived, extreme burst events, producing many young O and B stars that are primarily, yet not entirely, enshrouded in thick dust cocoons. The blue rest-frame UV slopes of DSFGs are inconsistent with the suggestion that most DSFGs at z ∼ 2 exhibit steady-state star formation in secular disks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]