The contribution of star-forming galaxies to the cosmic radio background

Abstract

Recent measurements of the temperature of the sky in the radio band, combined with literature data, have convincingly shown the existence of a cosmic radio background with an amplitude of $\sim 1$ K at 1 GHz and a spectral energy distribution that is well described by a power law with index $α\simeq -0.6$. The origin of this signal remains elusive, and it has been speculated that it could be dominated by the contribution of star-forming galaxies at high redshift \change{if the far infrared-radio correlation $q(z)$ evolved} in time. \change{We fit observational data from several different experiments by the relation $q(z) \simeq q_0 - β\log(1+z)$ with $q_0 = 2.783 \pm 0.024$ and $β= 0.705 \pm 0.081$ and estimate the total radio emission of the whole galaxy population at any given redshift from the cosmic star formation rate density at that redshift. It is found that} star-forming galaxies can only account for $\sim$13 percent of the observed intensity of the cosmic radio background.

5 pages, 3 figures