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csfrd

An Updated measurement of Cosmic Star Formation Rate Density

The cosmic star-formation rate density (SFRD) measures the rate at which galaxies grow across the full cosmic history and is one of the most fundamental quantities in extragalactic astronomy. Over the past two decades, astronomers have made great progress in pushing measurements of the SFRD to the earliest cosmic times, now reaching z~10-11 only ~ 400 Myr after the Big Bang. Until recently, at z>3, we only had access to rest-frame UV light, and previous estimates of the SFRD therefore relied on uncertain corrections of the UV light for dust extinction. Thanks to ALMA, however, new measurements of the infrared luminosity functions have now been extended to z~6, allowing us to directly probe the dust-obscured part of cosmic star-formation. The challenge now is to combine the measurements from the UV and the IR and then to update the previous estimates of the standard paper from Madau & Dickinson in 2014. In this astrophysics lab project, we will compile the most recent determinations of the UV and the IR luminosity functions in order to derive a new calibration of the cosmic SFRD integrated down to different limits, both for un-obscured and obscured SF. Based on this, we will further determine what fraction of stellar mass was produced in obscured and in un-obscured SF as a function of cosmic history. This will provide new insights into galaxy build-up over the past 13.4 Gyr.

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An Updated measurement of Cosmic Star Formation Rate Density

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