Cosmology

Abstract:

We discuss how measurements of the absorption of $\gamma$-rays from GeV to TeV energies via pair production on the extragalactic background light (EBL) can probe important issues in galaxy formation. We use semi-analytic models (SAMs) of galaxy formation, set within the hierarchical structure formation scenario, to obtain predictions of the EBL for 0.1-1000$\mu$m. SAMs incorporate simplified physical treatments of the key processes of galaxy formation --- including gravitational collapse and merging of dark matter halos, gas cooling and dissipation, star formation, supernova feedback and metal production --- and have been shown to reproduce key observations at low and high redshift. Here we also introduce improved modelling of the spectral energy distributions in the mid-to-far-IR arising from emission by dust grains. Assuming a flat \lcdm cosmology with $\Omega_m=0.3$ and Hubble parameter $h=0.65$, we investigate the consequences of variations in input assumptions such as the stellar initial mass function (IMF) and the efficiency of converting cold gas into stars. We conclude that observational studies of the absorption of $\gamma$-rays with energies from 10s of Gev to 10s of TeV will help to determine the EBL, and also help to explain its origin by constraining some of the most uncertain features of galaxy formation theory, including the IMF, the history of star formation, and the reprocessing of light by dust.

Abstract:

The far infrared background is a sink for the hidden aspects of galaxy formation. At optical wavelengths, ellipticals and spheroids are old, even at $z \sim 1.$ Neither the luminous formation phase nor their early evolution is seen in the visible. We infer that ellipticals and, more generally, most spheroids must have formed in dust-shrouded starbursts. In this article, we show how separate tracking of disk and spheroid star formation enables us to infer that disks dominate near the peak in the cosmic star formation rate at $z \lapproxeq 2$ and in the diffuse ultraviolet/optical/infrared background, whereas spheroid formation dominates the submillimetre background.

Abstract:

(Abridged) This paper predicts self-consistent faint galaxy counts from the UV to the submm wavelength range. The STARDUST spectral energy distributions described in Devriendt et al. (1999) are embedded within the explicit cosmological framework of a simple semi-analytic model of galaxy formation and evolution. We build a class of models which capture the luminosity budget of the universe through faint galaxy counts and redshift distributions in the whole wavelength range spanned by our spectra. In contrast with a rather stable behaviour in the optical and even in the far-IR, the submm counts are dramatically sensitive to variations in the cosmological parameters and changes in the star formation history. Faint submm counts are more easily accommodated within an open universe with a low value of $\Omega_0$, or a flat universe with a non-zero cosmological constant. This study illustrates the implementation of multi-wavelength spectra into a semi-analytic model. In spite of its simplicity, it already provides fair fits of the current data of faint counts, and a physically motivated way of interpolating and extrapolating these data to other wavelengths and fainter flux levels.