Cosmic Infrared Background Anisotropies Research Articles

Separation of dust emission from the cosmic infrared background in Herschel observations with wavelet phase harmonics

The low-brightness dust emission at high Galactic latitudes is of interest with respect to studying the interplay among the physical processes involved in shaping the structure of the interstellar medium (ISM), as well as in statistical characterizations of the dust emission as a foreground to the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Progress in this avenue of research has been hampered by the difficulty related to separating the dust emission from the cosmic infrared background (CIB). We demonstrate that the dust and CIB may be effectively separated based on their different structure on the sky and we use the separation to characterize the structure of diffuse dust emission on angular scales, where the CIB is a significant component in terms of power. We used scattering transform statistics, wavelet phase harmonics (WPH) to perform a statistical component separation using Herschel SPIRE observations. This component separation is done only from observational data using non-Gaussian properties as a lever arm and is done at a single 250 µm frequency. This method, which we validated on mock data, gives us access to non-Gaussian statistics of the interstellar dust and an output dust map that is essentially free from CIB contamination. Our statistical modeling characterizes the non-Gaussian structure of the diffuse ISM down to the smallest scales observed by Herschel. We recovered the power law shape of the dust power spectrum up to k = 2 arcmin−1, where the dust signal represents 2% of the total power. Going beyond the standard power spectra analysis, we show that the non-Gaussian properties of the dust emission are not scale-invariant. The output dust map reveals coherent structures at the smallest scales, which had been hidden by the CIB anisotropies. This aspect opens up new observational perspectives on the formation of structure in the diffuse ISM, which we discuss here in reference to a previous work. We have succeeded in performing a statistical separation from the observational data at a single frequency by using non-Gaussian statistics.

CONCERTO: Simulating the CO, [CII], and [CI] line emission of galaxies in a 117 deg2 field and the impact of field-to-field variance

In the submillimeter regime, spectral line scans and line intensity mapping (LIM) are new promising probes for the cold gas content and star formation rate of galaxies across cosmic time. However, both of these two measurements suffer from field-to-field variance. We study the effect of field-to-field variance on the predicted CO and [CII] power spectra from future LIM experiments such as CONCERTO, as well as on the line luminosity functions (LFs) and the cosmic molecular gas mass density that are currently derived from spectral line scans. We combined a 117 deg2 dark matter lightcone from the Uchuu cosmological simulation with the simulated infrared dusty extragalactic sky (SIDES) approach. The clustering of the dusty galaxies in the SIDES-Uchuu product is validated by reproducing the cosmic infrared background anisotropies measured by Herschel and Planck. We find that in order to constrain the CO LF with an uncertainty below 20%, we need survey sizes of at least 0.1 deg2. Furthermore, accounting for the field-to-field variance using only the Poisson variance can underestimate the total variance by up to 80%. The lower the luminosity is and the larger the survey size is, the higher the level of underestimate. At z < 3, the impact of field-to-field variance on the cosmic molecular gas density can be as high as 40% for the 4.6 arcmin2 field, but drops below 10% for areas larger than 0.2 deg2. However, at z > 3 the variance decreases more slowly with survey size and for example drops below 10% for 1 deg2 fields. Finally, we find that the CO and [CII] LIM power spectra can vary by up to 50% in 1 deg2 fields. This limits the accuracy of the constraints provided by the first 1 deg2 surveys. In addition the level of the shot noise power is always dominated by the sources that are just below the detection thresholds, which limits its potential for deriving number densities of faint [CII] emitters. We provide an analytical formula to estimate the field-to-field variance of current or future LIM experiments given their observed frequency and survey size. The underlying code to derive the field-to-field variance and the full SIDES-Uchuu products (catalogs, cubes, and maps) are publicly available.

Cosmic star formation history with tomographic cosmic infrared background-galaxy cross-correlation

In this work we present a new method for probing the star formation history of the Universe, namely tomographic cross-correlation between the cosmic infrared background (CIB) and galaxy samples. The galaxy samples are from the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS), while the CIB maps are made from Planck sky maps at 353, 545, and 857 GHz. We measure the cross-correlation in harmonic space within 100 < ℓ < 2000 with a significance of 43σ. We model the cross-correlation with a halo model, which links CIB anisotropies to star formation rates (SFRs) and galaxy abundance. We assume that the SFR has a lognormal dependence on halo mass and that the galaxy abundance follows the halo occupation distribution (HOD) model. The cross-correlations give a best-fit maximum star formation efficiency of ηmax = 0.41−0.14+0.09 at a halo mass log10(Mpeak/M⊙) = 12.14 ± 0.36. The derived star formation rate density (SFRD) is well constrained up to z ∼ 1.5. The constraining power at high redshift is mainly limited by the KiDS survey depth. We also show that the constraint is robust to uncertainties in the estimated redshift distributions of the galaxy sample. A combination with external SFRD measurements from previous studies gives log10(Mpeak/M⊙) = 12.42−0.19+0.35. This tightens the SFRD constraint up to z = 4, yielding a peak SFRD of 0.09−0.004+0.003 M⊙ yr−1 Mpc−3 at z = 1.74−0.02+0.06, corresponding to a lookback time of 10.05−0.03+0.12 Gyr. Both constraints are consistent, and the derived SFRD agrees with previous studies and simulations. This validates the use of CIB tomography as an independent probe of the star formation history of the Universe. Additionally, we estimate the galaxy bias, b, of KiDS galaxies from the constrained HOD parameters and obtain an increasing bias from b = 1.1−0.31+0.17 at z = 0 to b = 1.96−0.64+0.18 at z = 1.5, which highlights the potential of this method as a probe of galaxy abundance. Finally, we provide a forecast for future galaxy surveys and conclude that, due to their considerable depth, future surveys will yield a much tighter constraint on the evolution of the SFRD.

Cross-correlation of Far-infrared Background Anisotropies and CMB Lensing from Herschel and Planck Satellites

Abstract The cosmic infrared background (CIB) anisotropies and cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing are powerful measurements for exploring cosmological and astrophysical problems. In this work, we measure the autocorrelation power spectrum of the CIB anisotropies in the Herschel–SPIRE HerMES Large Mode Survey (HeLMS) field, and the cross-power spectrum with the CMB lensing measurements from the Planck satellite. The HeLMS field covers more than 270 deg2, which is much larger than in previous analysis. We use the Herschel Level 1 time stream data to merge the CIB maps at 250, 350, and 500 μm bands, and mask the areas where the flux is greater than or there are no measured data. We obtain the final CIB power spectra at 100 ≤ ℓ ≤ 20,000 by considering several effects, such as beam function, mode coupling, transfer function, and so on. We also calculate the theoretical CIB auto- and cross-power spectra of CIB and CMB lensing by assuming that the CIB emissivity follows a Gaussian distribution in redshift. We find that, for the CIB auto-power spectra, we obtain signal-to-noise ratios (S/Ns) of 15.9, 15.7, and 15.3 at 250, 350, and 500 μm, and for the CIB ⨯ CMB lensing power spectra, S/Ns of 7.5, 7.0, and 6.2 at 250, 350, and 500 μm, respectively. Comparing to previous works, the constraints on the relevant CIB parameters are improved by factors of 2– 5 in this study.

Sparse estimation of model-based diffuse thermal dust emission

Component separation for the Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) data is primarily concerned with the estimation of thermal dust emission, which requires the separation of thermal dust from the cosmic infrared background (CIB). For that purpose, current estimation methods rely on filtering techniques to decouple thermal dust emission from CIB anisotropies, which tend to yield a smooth, low-resolution, estimation of the dust emission. In this paper, we present a new parameter estimation method, premise: Parameter Recovery Exploiting Model Informed Sparse Estimates. This method exploits the sparse nature of thermal dust emission to calculate all-sky maps of thermal dust temperature, spectral index, and optical depth at 353 GHz. premise is evaluated and validated on full-sky simulated data. We find the percentage difference between the premise results and the true values to be 2.8, 5.7, and 7.2 per cent at the 1σ level across the full sky for thermal dust temperature, spectral index, and optical depth at 353 GHz, respectively. A comparison between premise and a GNILC-like method over selected regions of our sky simulation reveals that both methods perform comparably within high signal-to-noise regions. However, outside of the Galactic plane, premise is seen to outperform the GNILC-like method with increasing success as the signal-to-noise ratio worsens.

Planckintermediate results

Using the Planck 2015 data release (PR2) temperature maps, we separate Galactic thermal dust emission from cosmic infrared background (CIB) anisotropies. For this purpose, we implement a specifically tailored component-separation method, the so-called generalized needlet internal linear combination (GNILC) method, which uses spatial information (the angular power spectra) to disentangle the Galactic dust emission and CIB anisotropies. We produce significantly improved all-sky maps of Planck thermal dust emission, with reduced CIB contamination, at 353, 545, and 857 GHz. By reducing the CIB contamination of the thermal dust maps, we provide more accurate estimates of the local dust temperature and dust spectral index over the sky with reduced dispersion, especially at high Galactic latitudes above $b = \pm 20{\deg}$. We find that the dust temperature is $T = (19.4 \pm 1.3)$ K and the dust spectral index is $\beta = 1.6 \pm 0.1$ averaged over the whole sky, while $T = (19.4 \pm 1.5)$ K and $\beta = 1.6 \pm 0.2$ on 21 % of the sky at high latitudes. Moreover, subtracting the new CIB-removed thermal dust maps from the CMB-removed Planck maps gives access to the CIB anisotropies over 60 % of the sky at Galactic latitudes $|b| > 20{\deg}$. Because they are a significant improvement over previous Planck products, the GNILC maps are recommended for thermal dust science. The new CIB maps can be regarded as indirect tracers of the dark matter and they are recommended for exploring cross-correlations with lensing and large-scale structure optical surveys. The reconstructed GNILC thermal dust and CIB maps are delivered as Planck products.

Planck2015 results

We use Planck data to detect the cross-correlation between the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect and the infrared emission from the galaxies that make up the the cosmic infrared background (CIB). We first perform a stacking analysis towards Planck-confirmed galaxy clusters. We detect infrared emission produced by dusty galaxies inside these clusters and demonstrate that the infrared emission is about 50% more extended than the tSZ effect. Modelling the emission with a Navarro--Frenk--White profile, we find that the radial profile concentration parameter is $c_{500} = 1.00^{+0.18}_{-0.15}$. This indicates that infrared galaxies in the outskirts of clusters have higher infrared flux than cluster-core galaxies. We also study the cross-correlation between tSZ and CIB anisotropies, following three alternative approaches based on power spectrum analyses: (i) using a catalogue of confirmed clusters detected in Planck data; (ii) using an all-sky tSZ map built from Planck frequency maps; and (iii) using cross-spectra between Planck frequency maps. With the three different methods, we detect the tSZ-CIB cross-power spectrum at significance levels of (i) 6 $\sigma$, (ii) 3 $\sigma$, and (iii) 4 $\sigma$. We model the tSZ-CIB cross-correlation signature and compare predictions with the measurements. The amplitude of the cross-correlation relative to the fiducial model is $A_{\rm tSZ-CIB}= 1.2\pm0.3$. This result is consistent with predictions for the tSZ-CIB cross-correlation assuming the best-fit cosmological model from Planck 2015 results along with the tSZ and CIB scaling relations.

The clustering evolution of dusty star-forming galaxies

We present predictions for the clustering of galaxies selected by their emission at far infra-red (FIR) and sub-millimetre wavelengths. This includes the first predictions for the effect of clustering biases induced by the coarse angular resolution of single-dish telescopes at these wavelengths. We combine a new version of the GALFORM model of galaxy formation with a self-consistent model for calculating the absorption and re-emission of radiation by interstellar dust. Model galaxies selected at $850$ $\mu$m reside in dark matter halos of mass $M_{\rm halo}\sim10^{11.5}-10^{12}$ $h^{-1}$ M$_{\odot}$, independent of redshift (for $0.2\lesssim z\lesssim4$) or flux (for $0.25\lesssim S_{850\mu\rm m}\lesssim4$ mJy). At $z\sim2.5$, the brightest galaxies ($S_{850\mu\rm m}>4$ mJy) exhibit a correlation length of $r_{0}=5.5_{-0.5}^{+0.3}$ $h^{-1}$ Mpc, consistent with observations. We show that these galaxies have descendants with stellar masses $M_{\star}\sim10^{11}$ $h^{-1}$ M$_{\odot}$ occupying halos spanning a broad range in mass $M_{\rm halo}\sim10^{12}-10^{14}$ $h^{-1}$ M$_{\odot}$. The FIR emissivity at shorter wavelengths ($250$, $350$ and $500$ $\mu$m) is also dominated by galaxies in the halo mass range $M_{\rm halo}\sim10^{11.5}-10^{12}$ $h^{-1}$ M$_{\odot}$, again independent of redshift (for $0.5\lesssim z\lesssim5$). We compare our predictions for the angular power spectrum of cosmic infra-red background anisotropies at these wavelengths with observations, finding agreement to within a factor of $\sim2$ over all scales and wavelengths, an improvement over earlier versions of the model. Simulating images at $850$ $\mu$m, we show that confusion effects boost the measured angular correlation function on all scales by a factor of $\sim4$. This has important consequences, potentially leading to inferred halo masses being overestimated by an order of magnitude.

Large-area measurements of CIB power spectra with Planck HFI maps

We present new measurements of the power spectra of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) anisotropies using the Planck 2015 full-mission HFI data at 353, 545, and 857 GHz over 20 000 square degrees. Unlike previous Planck measurements of the CIB power spectra, we do not rely on external HI data to remove Galactic dust emission from the Planck maps. Instead, we model the Galactic emission at the level of the power spectra, using templates constructed directly from the Planck data by exploiting the statistical isotropy of all extragalactic emission components. This allows us to work at the full resolution of Planck over large sky areas. We construct a likelihood based on the measured spectra (for multipoles 50 ≤ ℓ ≤ 2500) using analytic covariance matrices that account for masking and the realistic instrumental noise properties. The results of an MCMC exploration of this likelihood are presented, based on simple parameterised models of the CIB power that arises from clustering of infrared galaxies. We explore simultaneously the parameters describing the clustered power, the Poisson power levels, and the amplitudes of the Galactic power spectrum templates across the six frequency (cross-)spectra. The best-fit model provides a good fit to all spectra. As an example, Fig. 1 compares the measured auto spectra at 353, 545, and 857 GHz over 40% of the sky to the power in the best-fit model. We find that the power in the CIB anisotropies from galaxy clustering is roughly equal to the Poisson power at multipoles ℓ =2000 (the clustered power dominates on larger scales), and that our dust-cleaned CIB spectra are in good agreement with previous Planck and Herschel measurements. A key feature of our analysis is that it allows one to make many internal consistency tests. We show that our results are stable to data selection and choice of survey area, demonstrating both our ability to remove Galactic dust power to high accuracy and the statistical isotropy of the CIB signal.

Non-Gaussianity of the cosmic infrared background anisotropies – I. Diagrammatic formalism and application to the angular bispectrum

We present the first halo model based description of the Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB) non-Gaussianity (NG) that is fully parametric. To this end, we introduce, for the first time, a diagrammatic method to compute high order polyspectra of the 3D galaxy density field. It allows an easy derivation and visualisation of the different terms of the polyspectrum. We apply this framework to the power spectrum and bispectrum, and we show how to project them on the celestial sphere in the purpose of the application to the CIB angular anisotropies. Furthermore, we show how to take into account the particular case of the shot noise terms in that framework. Eventually, we compute the CIB angular bispectrum at 857 GHz and study its scale and configuration dependencies, as well as its variations with the halo occupation distribution parameters. Compared to a previously proposed empirical prescription, such physically motivated model is required to describe fully the CIB anisotropies bispectrum. Finally, we compare the CIB bispectrum with the bispectra of other signals potentially present at microwave frequencies, which hints that detection of CIB NG should be possible above 220 GHz.

A MEASUREMENT OF SECONDARY COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND ANISOTROPIES WITH TWO YEARS OF SOUTH POLE TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS

ABSTRACT We present the first three-frequency South Pole Telescope (SPT) cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectra. The band powers presented here cover angular scales 2000 < ℓ < 9400 in frequency bands centered at 95, 150, and 220 GHz. At these frequencies and angular scales, a combination of the primary CMB anisotropy, thermal and kinetic Sunyaev–Zel'dovich (SZ) effects, radio galaxies, and cosmic infrared background (CIB) contributes to the signal. We combine Planck/HFI and SPT data at 220 GHz to constrain the amplitude and shape of the CIB power spectrum and find strong evidence for nonlinear clustering. We explore the SZ results using a variety of cosmological models for the CMB and CIB anisotropies and find them to be robust with one exception: allowing for spatial correlations between the thermal SZ effect and CIB significantly degrades the SZ constraints. Neglecting this potential correlation, we find the thermal SZ power at 150 GHz and ℓ = 3000 to be 3.65 ± 0.69 μK2, and set an upper limit on the kinetic SZ power to be less than 2.8 μK2 at 95% confidence. When a correlation between the thermal SZ and CIB is allowed, we constrain a linear combination of thermal and kinetic SZ power: D tSZ 3000 + 0.5D 3000 kSZ = 4.60 ± 0.63 μK2, consistent with earlier measurements. We use the measured thermal SZ power and an analytic, thermal SZ model calibrated with simulations to determine σ8 = 0.807 ± 0.016. Modeling uncertainties involving the astrophysics of the intracluster medium rather than the statistical uncertainty in the measured band powers are the dominant source of uncertainty on σ8. We also place an upper limit on the kinetic SZ power produced by patchy reionization; a companion paper uses these limits to constrain the reionization history of the universe.

An accurate measurement of the anisotropies and mean level of the cosmic infrared background at 100 μm and 160 μm

The measurement of the anisotropies in the cosmic infrared background (CIB) is a powerful mean of studying the evolution of galaxies and large-scale structures. These anisotropies have been measured by a number of experiments, from the far-infrared to the millimeter. One of the main impediments to an accurate measurement on large scales is the contamination of the foreground signal by Galactic dust emission. Our goal is to show that we can remove the Galactic cirrus contamination using HI data, and thus accurately measure the clustering of starburst galaxies in the CIB. We use observations of the ELAIS N1 field at far-infrared (100 and 160{\mu}m) and radio (21 cm) wavelengths. We compute the correlation between dust emission, traced by far-infrared observations, and HI gas traced by 21cm observations, and derive dust emissivities that enable us to subtract the cirrus emission from the far-infrared maps. We then derive the power spectrum of the CIB anisotropies, as well as its mean level at 100{\mu}m and 160{\mu}m. We also combine the HI data and Spitzer total power mode absolute measurements to determine the CIB mean level at 160{\mu}m. We find B160=0.77\pm0.04\pm0.12MJy/sr,where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. Combining this measurement with the B100/B160 color of the correlated anisotropies, we also derive the CIB mean at 100 {\mu}m, B100=0.24\pm0.08\pm0.04 MJy/sr. This measurement is in line with values obtained with recent models of infrared galaxy evolution and Herschel/PACS data, but is much smaller than the previous DIRBE measurements. The use of high-angular resolution Hi data is mandatory to accurately differentiate the cirrus from the CIB emission. The 100 {\mu}m IRAS map (and thus the map developed by Schlegel and collaborators) in such extragalactic fields is highly contaminated by the CIB anisotropies and hence cannot be used as a Galactic cirrus tracer.

Improved models for cosmic infrared background anisotropies: new constraints on the infrared galaxy population

The power spectrum of cosmic infrared background (CIB) anisotropies is sensitive to the connection between star formation and dark matter halos over the entire cosmic star formation history. Here we develop a model that associates star-forming galaxies with dark matter halos and their subhalos. The model is based on a parameterized relation between the dust-processed infrared luminosity and (sub)halo mass. By adjusting 3 free parameters, we attempt to simultaneously fit the 4 frequency bands of the Planck measurement of the CIB anisotropy power spectrum. To fit the data, we find that the star-formation efficiency must peak on a halo mass scale of ~ 5x10^12 solar mass and the infrared luminosity per unit mass must increase rapidly with redshift. By comparing our predictions with a well-calibrated phenomenological model for shot noise, and with a direct observation of source counts, we show that the mean duty cycle of the underlying infrared sources must be near unity, indicating that the CIB is dominated by long-lived quiescent star formation, rather than intermittent short "star bursts". Despite the improved flexibility of our model, the best simultaneous fit to all four Planck channels remains relatively poor. We discuss possible further extensions to alleviate the remaining tension with the data. Our model presents a theoretical framework for a future joint analysis of both background anisotropy and source count measurements.

Modeling the evolution of infrared galaxies: clustering of galaxies in the cosmic infrared background

Star-forming galaxies are a highly biased tracer of the underlying dark matter density field. Their clustering can be studied through the cosmic infrared background anisotropies. These anisotropies have been measured from 100 \mum to 2 mm in the last few years. In this paper, we present a fully parametric model allowing a joint analysis of these recent observations. In order to develop a coherent model at various wavelengths, we rely on two building blocks. The first one is a parametric model that describes the redshift evolution of the luminosity function of star-forming galaxies. It compares favorably to measured differential number counts and luminosity functions. The second one is a halo model based description of the clustering of galaxies. Starting from a fiducial model, we investigate parameter degeneracies using a Fisher analysis. We then discuss how halo of different mass and redshift, how LIRGs and ULIRGs, contribute to the CIB angular power spectra. From the Fisher analysis, we conclude that we cannot constrain the parameters of the model of evolution of galaxies using clustering data only. The use of combined data of C\ell, counts and luminosity functions improves slightly the constraints but does not remove any degeneracies. On the contrary, the measurement of the anisotropies allows us to set interesting constraints on the halo model parameters, even if some strong degeneracies remain. Using our fiducial model, we establish that the 1-halo and 2-halo terms are not sensitive to the same mass regime. We also illustrate how the 1-halo term can be misinterpreted with the Poisson noise term. Conclusions. We present a new model of the clustering of infrared galaxies. However such a model has a few limitations, as the parameters of the halo occupation suffer from strong degeneracies.

Planckearly results. XVIII. The power spectrum of cosmic infrared background anisotropies

Using Planck maps of six regions of low Galactic dust emission with a total area of about 140 square degrees, we determine the angular power spectra of cosmic infrared background (CIB) anisotropies from multipole l = 200 to l = 2000 at 217, 353, 545 and 857 GHz. We use 21-cm observations of HI as a tracer of thermal dust emission to reduce the already low level of Galactic dust emission and use the 143 GHz Planck maps in these fields to clean out cosmic microwave background anisotropies. Both of these cleaning processes are necessary to avoid significant contamination of the CIB signal. We measure correlated CIB structure across frequencies. As expected, the correlation decreases with increasing frequency separation, because the contribution of high-redshift galaxies to CIB anisotropies increases with wavelengths. We find no significant difference between the frequency spectrum of the CIB anisotropies and the CIB mean, with Delta I/I=15% from 217 to 857 GHz. In terms of clustering properties, the Planck data alone rule out the linear scale- and redshift-independent bias model. Non-linear corrections are significant. Consequently, we develop an alternative model that couples a dusty galaxy, parametric evolution model with a simple halo-model approach. It provides an excellent fit to the measured anisotropy angular power spectra and suggests that a different halo occupation distribution is required at each frequency, which is consistent with our expectation that each frequency is dominated by contributions from different redshifts. In our best-fit model, half of the anisotropy power at l=2000 comes from redshifts z<0.8 at 857 GHz and z<1.5 at 545 GHz, while about 90% come from redshifts z>2 at 353 and 217 GHz, respectively.

Cross-correlation between the cosmic microwave and infrared backgrounds for integrated Sachs-Wolfe detection

We investigate the cross-correlation between the cosmic infrared background (CIB) and cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies due to the integrated Sachs–Wolfe (ISW) effect. We first describe the CIB anisotropies using a linearly biased power spectrum, valid on the angular scales of interest. From this, we derive the theoretical angular power spectrum of the CMB–CIB cross-correlation for different instruments and frequencies. Our cross-spectra show similarities in shape with usual CMB–galaxies cross-correlations. We discuss the detectability of the ISW signal by performing a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) analysis with our predicted spectra. Our results show that (i) in the ideal case of noiseless, full-sky maps, the significances obtained range from 6σ to 7σ depending on the frequency, with a maximum at 353 GHz, and (ii) in realistic cases which account for the presence of noise including astrophysical contaminants, the results depend strongly on the major contribution to the noise term. They span from 2σ to 5σ, the most favourable frequency for detection being 545 GHz. We also find that the joint use of all available frequencies in the cross-correlation does not improve significantly the total S/N, due to the high level of correlation of the CIB maps at different frequencies.

Detecting Population III Stars through Observations of Near‐Infrared Cosmic Infrared Background Anisotropies

Following the successful mapping of the last scattering surface by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and balloon experiments, the epoch of the first stars, when Population III stars formed, is emerging as the next cosmological frontier. It is not clear what these stars' properties were, when they formed, or how long their era lasted before leading to the stars and galaxies we see today. We show that these questions can be answered with the current and future measurements of the near-IR cosmic infrared background (CIB). Theoretical arguments suggest that Population III stars were very massive and short-lived stars that formed at z ~ 10-20 at rare peaks of the density field in the cold dark matter universe. Because Population III stars probably formed individually in small minihalos, they are not directly accessible to current telescopic studies. We show that these stars left a strong and measurable signature via their contribution to the CIB anisotropies for a wide range of their formation scenarios. The excess in the recently measured near-IR CIB anisotropies over that from normal galaxies can be explained by contribution from early Population III stars. These results imply that Population III were indeed very massive stars and that their epoch started at z ~ 20 and lasted past z 13. We show the importance of accurately measuring the CIB anisotropies produced by Population III with future space-based missions.