The extragalactic background light (EBL) is of fundamental importance both for understanding the entire process of galaxy evolution and for γ‐ray astronomy, but the overall spectrum of the EBL between 0.1 and 1000 μm has never been determined directly from galaxy spectral energy distribution (SED) observations over a wide redshift range. The evolving, overall spectrum of the EBL is derived here utilizing a novel method based on observations only. This is achieved from the observed evolution of the rest‐frame K‐band galaxy luminosity function up to redshift 4, combined with a determination of galaxy‐SED‐type fractions. These are based on fitting Spitzer Wide‐Area Infrared Extragalactic Survey (SWIRE) templates to a multiwavelength sample of about 6000 galaxies in the redshift range from 0.2 to 1 from the All‐wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS). The changing fractions of quiescent galaxies, star‐forming galaxies, starburst galaxies and active galactic nucleus (AGN) galaxies in that redshift range are estimated, and two alternative extrapolations of SED types to higher redshifts are considered. This allows calculation of the evolution of the luminosity densities from the ultraviolet (UV) to the infrared (IR), the evolving star formation rate density of the Universe, the evolving contribution to the bolometric EBL from the different galaxy populations including AGN galaxies and the buildup of the EBL. Our EBL calculations are compared with those from a semi‐analytic model, another observationally based model and observational data. The EBL uncertainties in our modelling based directly on the data are quantified, and their consequences for attenuation of very‐high‐energy γ‐rays due to pair production on the EBL are discussed. It is concluded that the EBL is well constrained from the UV to the mid‐IR, but independent efforts from IR and γ‐ray astronomy are needed in order to reduce the uncertainties in the far‐IR.

Attenuation of high-energy gamma-rays by pair production with ultraviolet, optical and infrared (IR) extragalactic background light (EBL) photons provides a link between the history of galaxy formation and high-energy astrophysics. We present results from our latest semi-analytic models (SAMs), which employ the main ingredients thought to be important to galaxy formation and evolution, as well as an improved model for reprocessing of starlight by dust to mid- and far-IR wavelengths. These SAMs are based upon a Λ cold dark matter hierarchical structural formation scenario, and are successful in reproducing a large variety of observational constraints such as number counts, luminosity and mass functions and colour bimodality. Our fiducial model is based upon a Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 5-year cosmology, and treats dust emission using empirical templates. This model predicts a background flux considerably lower than optical and near-IR measurements that rely on subtraction of zodiacal and galactic foregrounds, and near the lower bounds set by number counts of resolvable sources at a large number of wavelengths. We also show the results of varying cosmological parameters and dust attenuation model used in our SAM. For each EBL prediction, we show how the optical depth due to electron-positron pair production is affected by redshift and gamma-ray energy, and the effect of gamma-ray absorption on the spectra of a variety of extragalactic sources. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our work, comparisons to other models and key measurements of the EBL and a discussion of how the burgeoning science of gamma-ray astronomy will continue to help constrain cosmology. The low EBL flux predicted by our fiducial model suggests an optimistic future for further studies of distant gamma-ray sources.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia FIS2008-04189Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional CSD2007-00042Junta de Andalucía P07-FQM-0289

We combine a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation with simple analytic recipes describing the absorption and re-emission of starlight by dust in the interstellar medium of galaxies. We use the resulting models to predict galaxy counts and luminosity functions from the far-ultraviolet (FUV) to the submillimetre, from redshift five to the present, and compare with an extensive compilation of observations. We find that in order to reproduce the rest-UV and optical luminosity functions at high redshift, we must assume an evolving normalization in the dust-to-metal ratio, implying that galaxies of a given bolometric luminosity (or metal column density) must be less extinguished than their local counterparts. In our best-fitting model, we find remarkably good agreement with observations from rest ~1500 Å to m. At longer wavelengths, most dramatically in the submillimetre, our models underpredict the number of bright galaxies by a large factor. The models reproduce the observed total IR luminosity function fairly well. We show the results of varying several ingredients of the models, including various aspects of the dust attenuation recipe, the dust emission templates and the cosmology. We use our models to predict the integrated extragalactic background light, and compare with an observationally motivated extragalactic background light EBL model and with other available observational constraints