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AbstractIR spectroscopy in the range 12–230 μm with the SPace IR telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) will reveal the physical processes governing the formation and evolution of galaxies and black holes through cosmic time, bridging the gap between the James Webb Space Telescope and the upcoming Extremely Large Telescopes at shorter wavelengths and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array at longer wavelengths. The SPICA, with its 2.5-m telescope actively cooled to below 8 K, will obtain the first spectroscopic determination, in the mid-IR rest-frame, of both the star-formation rate and black hole accretion rate histories of galaxies, reaching lookback times of 12 Gyr, for large statistically significant samples. Densities, temperatures, radiation fields, and gas-phase metallicities will be measured in dust-obscured galaxies and active galactic nuclei, sampling a large range in mass and luminosity, from faint local dwarf galaxies to luminous quasars in the distant Universe. Active galactic nuclei and starburst feedback and feeding mechanisms in distant galaxies will be uncovered through detailed measurements of molecular and atomic line profiles. The SPICA’s large-area deep spectrophotometric surveys will provide mid-IR spectra and continuum fluxes for unbiased samples of tens of thousands of galaxies, out to redshifts of z ~ 6.

Abstract: IR spectroscopy in the range 12–230 μm with the SPace IR telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) will reveal the physical processes governing the formation and evolution of galaxies and black holes through cosmic time, bridging the gap between the James Webb Space Telescope and the upcoming Extremely Large Telescopes at shorter wavelengths and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array at longer wavelengths. The SPICA, with its 2.5-m telescope actively cooled to below 8 K, will obtain the first spectroscopic determination, in the mid-IR rest-frame, of both the star-formation rate and black hole accretion rate histories of galaxies, reaching lookback times of 12 Gyr, for large statistically significant samples. Densities, temperatures, radiation fields, and gas-phase metallicities will be measured in dust-obscured galaxies and active galactic nuclei, sampling a large range in mass and luminosity, from faint local dwarf galaxies to luminous quasars in the distant Universe. Active galactic nuclei and starburst feedback and feeding mechanisms in distant galaxies will be uncovered through detailed measurements of molecular and atomic line profiles. The SPICA’s large-area deep spectrophotometric surveys will provide mid-IR spectra and continuum fluxes for unbiased samples of tens of thousands of galaxies, out to redshifts of z ~ 6.

We present the mid-infrared (MIR) properties of galaxies within a supercluster in the north ecliptic pole region at z ∼ 0.087 observed with the AKARI satellite. We use data from the AKARI NEP-Wide (5.4deg2) IR survey and the CLusters of galaxies EVoLution studies (CLEVL) mission program. We show that near-IR (3 μm)-mid-IR (11 μm) color can be used as an indicator of the specific star formation rate and the presence of intermediate-age stellar populations. From the MIR observations, we find that red-sequence galaxies consist not only of passively evolving red early-type galaxies, but also of (1) "weak-SFGs" (disk-dominated star-forming galaxies that have star formation rates lower by ∼4 × than blue-cloud galaxies) and (2) "intermediate-MXGs" (bulge-dominated galaxies showing stronger MIR dust emission than normal red early-type galaxies). These two populations can be a set of transition galaxies from blue, star-forming, late-type galaxies evolving into red, quiescent, early-type ones. We find that the weak-SFGs are predominant at intermediate masses (1010 M ⊙ < M * < 1010.5 M ⊙) and are typically found in local densities similar to the outskirts of galaxy clusters. As much as 40% of the supercluster member galaxies in this mass range can be classified as weak-SFGs, but their proportion decreases to 10 10.5 M ⊙) at any galaxy density. The fraction of the intermediate-MXG among red-sequence galaxies at 1010 M ⊙ < M * < 1011 M ⊙ also decreases as the density and mass increase. In particular, ∼42% of the red-sequence galaxies with early-type morphologies are classified as intermediate-MXGs at intermediate densities. These results suggest that the star formation activity is strongly dependent on the stellar mass, but that the morphological transformation is mainly controlled by the environment. © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

We present the first galaxy counts at 18 μm using the Japanese AKARI satellite's survey at the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP), produced from the images from the NEP-Deep and NEP-Wide surveys covering 0.6 and 5.8 deg2, respectively. We describe a procedure using a point source filtering algorithm to remove background structure and a minimum variance method for our source extraction and photometry that delivers the optimum signal to noise for our extracted sources, confirming this by comparison with standard photometry methods. The final source counts are complete and reliable over three orders of magnitude in flux density, resulting in sensitivities (80 per cent completeness) of 0.15 and 0.3 mJy for the NEP-Deep and NEP-Wide surveys, respectively, a factor of 1.3 deeper than previous catalogues constructed from this field. The differential source counts exhibit a characteristic upturn from Euclidean expectations at around a milliJansky and a corresponding evolutionary bump between 0.2–0.4 mJy consistent with previous mid-infrared surveys with ISO and Spitzer at 15 and 24 μm. We compare our results with galaxy evolution models confirming the striking divergence from the non-evolving scenario. The models and observations are in broad agreement implying that the source counts are consistent with a strongly evolving population of luminous infrared galaxies at redshifts higher than unity. Integrating our source counts down to the limit of the NEP survey at the 150 μJy level we calculate that AKARI has resolved approximately 55 per cent of the 18 μm cosmic infrared background relative to the predictions of contemporary source count models. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present the new constraints on the cosmic optical background (COB) obtained from an analysis of the Pioneer 10/1J Imaging Photopolarimeter (IPP) data. After careful examination of data quality, the usable measurements free from the zodiacal light are integrated into sky maps at the blue (~0.44 µm) and red (~0.64 µm) band. Accurate starlight subtraction is achieved by referring to all-sky star catalogs and a Galactic stellar population synthesis model down to 32.0 mag. We find that the residual light is separated into two components: one component shows a clear correlation with thermal 100 µm brightness, while another betrays a constant level in the lowest 100 µm brightness region. The presence of the second component is significant after all the uncertainties and possible residual light in the Galaxy are taken into account, and thus it most likely has the extragalactic origin (i.e., the COB). The derived COB brightness is (1.8 ± 0.9) x 10-9 and (1.2 ± 0.9) x 10-9 erg s-1 cm -2 sr-1 Å-1 at the blue and red bands, respectively, or 7.9 ± 4.0 and 7.7 ± 5.8 nW m-2 sr-1. From comparison with the integrated brightness of galaxies, we conclude that bulk of the COB is comprised of normal galaxies which have already been resolved in the current deepest observations. There seems to be little room for contributions of other populations including "first stars" at these wavelengths. On the other hand, the first component of the IPP residual light represents the diffuse Galactic light (DGL)-- scattered starlight by the interstellar dust. We derive mean DGL-to-100 µm brightness ratios of 2.1 x 10-3 and 4.6 x 10-3 at the two bands, which are roughly consistent with the previous observations toward the denser dust regions. Extended red emission in the diffuse interstellar medium is also confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the detailed optical to far-infrared (far-IR) observations of SST J1604+4304, an ultraluminous IR galaxy at . Analysing the stellar absorption lines, namely, the Ca ii H & K and Balmer H lines in the optical spectrum, we derive the upper limits of an age for the stellar population. Given this constraint, the minimum method is used to fit the stellar population models to the observed spectral energy distribution from 0.44 to 5.8 μm. We find the following properties. The stellar population has an age 40–200 Myr with a metallicity . The starlight is reddened by . The reddening is caused by the foreground dust screen, indicating that dust is depleted in the starburst site and the starburst site is surrounded by a dust shell. The IR (8–1000 μm) luminosity is . This is two times greater than that expected from the observed starlight, suggesting either that 1/2 of the starburst site is completely obscured at UV-optical wavelengths, or that 1/2 of Lir comes from active galactic nucleus (AGN) emission. The inferred dust mass is . This is sufficient to form a shell surrounding the galaxy with an optical depth . From our best stellar population model – an instantaneous starburst with an age 40 Myr – we infer the rate of 19 supernovae per year. Simply analytical models imply that in stars was reached when the gas mass reduced to 30 per cent of the galaxy mass. The gas metallcity is at this point. The gas-to-dust mass ratio is then . The inferred dust production rate is per SN. If 1/2 of Lir comes from AGN emission, the rate is per SN. We discuss the evolutionary link of SST J1604+4304 to other galaxy populations in terms of the stellar masses and the galactic winds, including optically selected low-luminosity Lyman α-emitters and submillimeter selected high-luminosity galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The AKARI (formerly known as ASTRO-F) mission is the first Japanese satellite dedicated for large area surveys in the infrared (Murakami et al. 2004). AKARI was launched successfully on February 22nd 2006 (JST) from JAXA's Uchinoura Space Centre, Japan. AKARI is now orbiting around the Earth in a Sun-synchronous polar orbit at the altitude of 700 km. The 68.5 cm aperture telescope and scientific instruments are cooled to 6K by liquid Helium and mechanical coolers. The expected liquid Helium holding time is now found to be at least one year after the successful aperture lid-opening on 2006 April 13th (JST). AKARI will perform the most advanced all-sky survey in 6 mid- to far-infrared wavebands since the preceding IRAS mission over 2 decades ago. Deep imaging and spectroscopic surveys near the ecliptic poles with pointed observations are also on-going in 13 wavelength bands at 2-160 μm (see Table 1, details are given in Matsuhara et al. 2006). AKARI is a perfect complement to Spitzer in respect of its wide sky area and wavelength coverage. Two unique aspects of the pointing deep surveys with AKARI are: many imaging bands including the wavelength gap of Spitzer (8-24 μm), and the slitless spectroscopic capability (Ohyama et al. in this proceeding). Not only the All-Sky Survey but also the deep pointing surveys near the ecliptic poles over ~15 deg2 in total will be particularly well suited to construct the luminosity functions of the infrared galaxies, to evaluate their clustering nature, and also to discover rare, exotic objects at various redshifts out to z ~ 3. AKARI is also capable of detecting and measuring the spectrum and the fluctuations of the cosmic infrared background. The in-orbit sensitivity and spatial resolution of the surveys are found to be sufficient to achive the scientific goals listed above. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]