Predictions for surveys with the SPICA Mid-infrared Instrument

Abstract

We present predictions for number counts and redshift distributions of galaxies detectable in continuum and in emission lines with the Mid-infrared (MIR) Instrument (SMI) proposed for the Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA). We have considered 24 MIR fine-structure lines, four Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) bands (at 6.2, 7.7, 8.6 and 11.3$\mu$m) and two silicate bands (in emission and in absorption) at 9.7$\mu$m and 18.0$\mu$m. Six of these lines are primarily associated with Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), the others with star formation. A survey with the SMI spectrometers of 1 hour integration per field-of-view (FoV) over an area of $1{deg}^2$ will yield $5\sigma$ detections of $\simeq 140$ AGN lines and of $\simeq 5.2\times 10^4$ star-forming galaxies, $\simeq 1.6\times 10^4$ of which will be detected in at least two lines. The combination of a shallow ($20.0{deg}^2$, $1.4\times 10^{-1}$ h integration per FoV) and a deep survey ($6.9\times 10^{-3}{deg}^2$, $635$ h integration time), with the SMI camera, for a total of $\sim$1000 h, will accurately determine the MIR number counts of galaxies and of AGNs over five orders of magnitude in flux density, reaching values more than one order of magnitude fainter than the deepest Spitzer $24\mu$m surveys. This will allow us to determine the cosmic star formation rate (SFR) function down to SFRs more than 100 times fainter than reached by the Herschel Observatory.

12 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Lighting the dark molecular gas: H${}_2$ as a direct tracer
• Unbiased large spectroscopic surveys of galaxies selected by SPICA using dust bands
• Origins Space Telescope: predictions for far-IR spectroscopic surveys
• Exploring the evolution of star formation and dwarf galaxy properties with JWST/MIRI serendipitous spectroscopic surveys