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Using simple optical galaxy count models to explain the sub-mm
background
Geoff Busswell (Durham)
Observations in the sub-mm waveband have recently revealed a new
population of sources at high redshift that are currently undetectable
in the optical due to the presence of large amounts of galactic dust.
Metcalfe et al. (1996) have previously found that
Bruzual and Charlot evolutionary models of spiral galaxies, with
a exponential SFR of tau=9Gyr, give excellent
fits to optical counts from U to K with the inclusion of 0.3mag dust
absorption in the B band. We now show that by using
a 1/lambda absorption law for the dust and redistributing the spiral UV
radiation into the FIR we can account for a substantial proportion
of the faint sub-mm
galaxy counts and nearly all of the FIR background at 850 microns.
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