Hermes: Cosmic infrared background anisotropies and the clustering of dusty star-forming galaxies

Abstract

Star formation is well traced by dust, which absorbs the UV/optical light produced by young stars in actively starforming regions and re-emits the energy in the far-infrared/ submillimeter (FIR/submm; e.g., Savage & Mathis 1979). Roughly half of all starlight ever produced has been reprocessed by dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs; e.g., Hauser & Dwek 2001; Dole et al. 2006), and this emission is responsible for the ubiquitous cosmic infrared background (CIB; Puget et al. 1996; Fixsen et al. 1998). The mechanisms responsible for the presence or absence of star formation are partially dependent on the local environment (e.g., major mergers: Narayanan et al. 2010; condensation or cold accretion: Dekel et al. 2009, photoionization heating, supernovae, active galactic nuclei, and virial shocks: Birnboim & Dekel 2003; Granato et al. 2004; Bower et al. 2006). Thus, the specifics of the galaxy distribution—which can be determined statistically to high precision by measuring their clustering properties—inform the relationship of star formation and dark matter density, and are valuable inputs for models of galaxy formation. However, measuring the clustering of DSFGs has historically proven difficult to do.