Modeling the Extragalactic Background Light and the Cosmic Star Formation History

Understand

We present an updated model for the extragalactic background light (EBL) from stars and dust, over wavelengths approximately 0.1 to 1000 $\mu$m.

• This model uses accurate theoretical stellar spectra, and tracks the evolution of star formation, stellar mass density, metallicity, and interstellar dust extinction and emission in the universe with redshift.
• Dust emission components are treated self-consistently, with stellar light absorbed by dust reradiated in the infrared as three blackbody components.
• We fit our model, with free parameters associated with star formation rate and dust extinction and emission, to a wide variety of data: luminosity density, stellar mass density, and dust extinction data from galaxy surveys; and $\gamma$-ray absorption optical depth data from $\gamma$-ray telescopes.