2020-11-20 Abstract

Title: The Origin of the Cosmic Submillimeter Background 
 
Speaker:  Dr. Chian-Chou Chen (ASIAA)
 
Date: November 20 at 14:30
 
Location: R521, General Building II
 
Abstract: 
Extragalactic background light (EBL), the integrated light flux densities outside the Milky Way, provides one of the most fundamental constraints on the formation and evolution of the Universe. While the cosmic microwave background (CMB) dominates the EBL energy budget, it is the cosmic optical (COB) and comic infrared background (CIB) that inform us most about galaxy formation and evolution. In this talk, I plan to first review the current understandings of the EBL, and then dig further into the submillimeter regime where we have seen recent progress. In the second part of the talk I will discuss the submillimeter galaxy (SMG), the dominant contributor to the submillimeter background, by first providing their basic properties and then addressing key questions like how did it form? and how would it evolve? During the session, a picture will naturally emerge where despite its important role in galaxy evolution, SMG is as mysterious now as it was discovered more than 20 years ago, causing headaches to most, if not all, state-of-the-art galaxy formation models.