Prospecting for Heavy Elements with Future Far-IR/Submillimeter Observatories
Abstract
To understand the cosmic history of element synthesis it will be important to obtain extinction-free measures of the heavy element contents of high-redshift objects and to chart two monumental events: the collapse of the first metal-free clouds to form stars, and the initial seeding of the universe with dust. The information needed to achieve these objectives is uniquely available in the far-infrared/submillimeter (FIR/SMM) spectral region. Following the Decadal Report and anticipating the development of the Single Aperture Far-IR (SAFIR) telescope and FIR/SMM interferometry, we estimate the measurement capabilities of a large-aperture, background-limited FIR/SMM observatory and an interferometer on a boom, and discuss how such instruments could be used to measure the element synthesis history of the universe.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0209631,
title = {Prospecting for Heavy Elements with Future Far-IR/Submillimeter Observatories},
author = {D. Leisawitz and D. J. Benford and A. Kashlinsky and C. R. Lawrence and J. C. Mather and S. H. Moseley and S. A. Rinehart and R. F. Silverberg and H. W. Yorke},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0209631},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
9 pages, 2 figures To be published in Proc. Origins 2002 Conf. "The Heavy Element Trail From Galaxies to Habitable Worlds," ed. C. Woodward