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The Role of Dust in Producing the Cosmic Infrared Background

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2016

Eli Dwek
Eli Dwek*
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA

Abstract

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The extragalactic background light (EBL), exclusive of the cosmic microwave background, consists of the cumulative radiative output from all energy sources in the universe since the epoch of recombination. Most of this energy is released at ultraviolet and optical wavelengths. However, observations show that a significant fraction of the EBL falls in the 10 to 1000 μm wavelength regime. This provides conclusive evidence that we live in a dusty universe, since only dust can efficiently absorbs a significant fraction of the background energy and reemit it at infrared wavelengths. The general role of dust in forming the cosmic infrared background (CIB) is therefore obvious. However, its role in determining the exact spectral shape of the CIB is quite complex. The CIB spectrum depends on the microscopic physical properties of the dust, its composition, abundance, and spatial distribution relative to the emitting sources, and its response to evolutionary processes that can modify all the factors listed above. This paper will present a brief summary of the many ways dust affects the intensity and spectral shape of the cosmic infrared background. In an Appendix we present new limits on the mid-infrared intensity of the CIB using TeV γ-ray observations of Mrk 501.

Type
Research Article
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 204: The Extragalactic Infrared Background and its Cosmological Implication , 2001 , pp. 389 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2001 

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