Angular power spectra of the millimeter-wavelength background light from dusty star-forming galaxies with the South Pole Telescope

• Published in: The Astrophysical Journal
• Main Authors: Hall, N. R., Keisler, R., Knox, L., Reichardt, C. L., Ade, Peter A. R., Aird, K. A., Benson, B. A., Bleem, L. E., Carlstrom, J. E., Chang, C. L., Cho, H. M., Crawford, T. M., Crites, A. T., de Haan, T., Dobbs, M. A., George, E. M., Halverson, N. W., Holder, G. P., Holzapfel, W. L., Hrubes, J. D., Joy, M., Lee, A. T., Leitch, E. M., Lueker, M., McMahon, J. J., Mehl, J., Meyer, S. S., Mohr, J. J., Montroy, T. E., Padin, S., Plagge, T., Pryke, C., Ruhl, J. E., Schaffer, K. K., Shaw, L., Shirokoff, E., Spieler, H. G., Stalder, B., Staniszewski, Z., Stark, A. A., Switzer, E. R., Vanderlinde, K., Vieira, J. D., Williamson, R., Zahn, O.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: IOPScience 2010
• Subjects: QB Astronomy; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/33739/; https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/718/2/632

We use data from the first 100 deg(2) field observed by the South Pole Telescope (SPT) in 2008 to measure the angular power spectrum of temperature anisotropies contributed by the background of dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) at millimeter wavelengths. From the auto- and cross-correlation of 150 and 220 GHz SPT maps, we significantly detect both Poisson distributed and, for the first time at millimeter wavelengths, clustered components of power from a background of DSFGs. The spectral indices of the Poisson and clustered components are found to be (_a^(-p))(150-220)=3.86±0.23 and α © (150–220) = 3.8 ± 1.3, implying a steep scaling of the dust emissivity index β ~ 2. The Poisson and clustered power detected in SPT, BLAST (at 600, 860, and 1200 GHz), and Spitzer (1900 GHz) data can be understood in the context of a simple model in which all galaxies have the same graybody spectrum with dust emissivity index of β = 2 and dust temperature T(d) = 34 K. In this model, half of the 150 GHz background light comes from redshifts greater than 3.2. We also use the SPT data to place an upper limit on the amplitude of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich power spectrum at ℓ = 3000 of 13 μK(2) at 95% confidence.