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# Evidence for a Sudden Magnetic Field Reconfiguration in SGR 1900+14

## 1 Introduction

Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) are believed to be a rare class of magnetized neutron stars whose collective behavior challenges physical models to explain their observed properties. There are currently four known SGRs and one candidate source (see Hurley 2000 for a review). They emit brief (durations $``$0.1 s), intense (super-Eddington luminosities $``$1042 ergs s-1) bursts of hard X-rays and soft $`\gamma `$-rays which repeat on timescales of seconds to years. On two exceptional occasions over the last 20 years, giant flares that reached $``$1045 ergs s-1 were observed. These two events were associated with SGR 0526$``$66 (Mazets et al. 1979) and SGR 1900$`+`$14 (Hurley et al. 1999a). Three of the four SGRs are positionally coincident with young supernova remnants (SNRs; SGR 1900$`+`$14 lies 2 outside G42.0$`+`$0.8 and its association is more suspect \[Vrba et al. 2000; Lorimer & Xilouris 2000\]) and all are associated with persistent X-ray counterparts. These counterparts have luminosities in quiescence of $`10^{34}10^{35}`$ ergs s-1 and spectra that can be roughly characterized by a simple power-law ($`\alpha `$2.2) attenuated by interstellar absorption. Coherent pulsations have recently been detected in the persistent emission from two of these sources (SGR 1806$``$20 at 7.5 s \[Kouveliotou et al. 1998\] and SGR 1900$`+`$14 at 5.2 s \[Hurley et al. 1999b\]). Both sources are spinning down rapidly at rates $``$10-10 s s-1 (Kouveliotou et al. 1998 and Kouveliotou et al. 1999, respectively).

Most physical models for SGRs agree that they are young, isolated, magnetized neutron stars. The theories differ on the proposed strength of the stellar magnetic field, and hence, the energy source of the emitted radiation. Models that suggest the SGRs have field strengths $`10^{11}10^{12}`$ G (e.g. Marsden et al. 2000) requires accretion to account for the persistent X-ray emission. Such models have not yet offered any explanations for the hyper-Eddington burst emissions. On the other hand, Thompson & Duncan (1995, 1996) have put forward a model for the SGRs as highly magnetized neutron stars ($`10^{14}10^{15}`$ G), i.e. magnetars, which can account for both the persistent and burst emission properties. In the magnetar model, the decay of the superstrong magnetic field powers the persistent X-ray emission through low-level seismic activity and heating of the stellar interior (Thompson & Duncan 1996). The bursts are due to large-scale crust fractures that are driven by the evolving magnetic field (Thompson & Duncan 1995). The super-Eddington burst fluxes can be achieved in the presence of such a strong field due to the suppression of the electron scattering cross-section for some polarizations (Paczyński 1992).

SGR 1900$`+`$14 was discovered after only three bursts were recorded from the source in 1979 (Mazets & Golenetskii 1981). Thirteen years later, four more events were detected from this SGR (Kouveliotou et al. 1993). The pulsed signal at 5.2 s from SGR 1900$`+`$14 was discovered (Hurley et al. 1999b) during an April 1998 observation of the source with the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA). This observation coincidentally took place just three weeks prior to burst reactivation of the SGR (Hurley et al. 1999c). Subsequent observations with the Proportional Counter Array (PCA) aboard the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) of SGR 1900$`+`$14 confirmed the pulsations and established that the source was spinning down rapidly, having a period derivative $`10^{10}`$ s s-1 (Kouveliotou et al. 1999).

The peak of the burst active phase for SGR 1900$`+`$14 was reached on 1998 August 27 when a giant flare was recorded by numerous instruments. This flare started with a short ($``$0.07 s), soft spike (often referred to as the “pre-cursor”) that was followed by a much brighter, hard pulse (duration $``$1 s) that approached $``$1045 ergs s-1, and a soft $`\gamma `$-ray tail modulated at 5.2 s (Hurley et al. 1999a; Feroci et al. 1999; Mazets et al. 1999). The 5.2 s oscillating tail decayed in a quasi-exponential manner over the next $``$6 min (Feroci et al. 2000). Integrating over the entire flare (assuming isotropic emission), at least $``$1044 ergs were released in $`\gamma `$-rays greater than 15 keV (Mazets et al. 1999). Shortly after this flare, the All-Sky Monitor (ASM) aboard RXTE detected SGR 1900$`+`$14 for the first time in its four year mission at a flux level of $``$0.1 Crab (Remillard, Smith & Levine 1998). Approximately one week following the bright August 27th flare, a transient radio flare lasting $``$10 days was recorded with the Very Large Array (Frail, Kulkarni & Bloom 1999). The temporal decay of this radio flare is consistent with a power-law having an exponent of $``$2.6 $`\pm `$ 1.5 (Frail et al. 1999). On August 29, another bright SGR burst was detected which resembled the August 27th flare in many ways (Ibrahim et al. 2000). Like the giant flare, this burst had a well-defined, relatively weaker pre-cursor and was followed by a long ($``$1000 s), oscillitory tail. However, this burst was scaled down in both peak luminosity and duration in $`\gamma `$-rays by a factor $``$100.

Sixteen days after the August 27th flare, imaged X-ray observations with ASCA and the Satellite per Astronomia X (BeppoSAX) of the SGR recorded the persistent flux level of the source, which had grown by a factor $``$2.5 above the value prior to burst activity (Murakami et al. 1999; Woods et al. 1999a). From an earlier observation of SGR 1900$`+`$14 with BeppoSAX in 1997 May, while the source was in quiescence, we found that the spectrum could not be fit by a simple power-law model; however, the sum of a blackbody and a power-law provided an adequate fit to the 0.1$``$10 keV source spectrum (Woods et al. 1999a). A recent analysis of the ASCA observation in 1998 April, preceding reactivation by $``$3 weeks, shows that the two-component model (blackbody $`+`$ power-law) yields a significantly better fit to the data (D. Marsden, private communication). By including a low temperature ($`kT`$ $``$0.5 keV) blackbody component in the spectral model, the power-law index becomes flatter to accomodate the blackbody flux contribution which is most prominent at the low end of the observed energy range. Consequently, the photon index measured using the two-component model ($`\alpha =1.11\pm 0.19`$ in 1997 May) differs significantly from the index as measured using a simple power-law model for the same data ($`\alpha =1.9`$ \[Woods et al. 1999a\]). When the source became more luminous during the burst active phase, the X-ray energy spectrum could be adequately modeled with a simple power-law. The thermal component was no longer significant, hence, the flux enhancement was attributed to a rise in the power-law component of the spectrum (Woods et al. 1999a). Note that this does not imply the blackbody component “disappeared” or even faded, but was rather overwhelmed by the much brighter power-law component.

Here, we have analyzed a large set of X-ray observations of the source in order to construct a more complete flux history for SGR 1900$`+`$14. We compare changes observed in the pulse profile during the tail of the August 27th event with changes in the pulse profile of the persistent emission. We discuss these observations and the constraints they place on different models for the SGRs. Finally, we suggest that these new observations support the idea of a long-lasting reconfiguration of the stellar magnetic field that took place during the August 27th flare.

## 2 The X-ray Data Set

Since 1992, there have been only 8 pointed observations with X-ray imaging instruments of the persistent counterpart to SGR 1900$`+`$14 (not including surveys). Two observations were performed with the Roentgen Satellite (ROSAT) High Resolution Imager (HRI), two with ASCA, and four with the BeppoSAX Narrow Field Instruments (NFI). To supplement this sparse data set, we have included more than 20 other observations using the PCA and ASM aboard RXTE. The PCA observations were particularly well-sampled during the burst active phase of the source in 1998. This time period is of key interest since it contains both the BeppoSAX and ASCA measurements of a $``$2.5 factor intensity increase in the persistent flux above the quiescent level and the ASM detection at 0.1 Crab.

With the exception of the two ROSAT HRI (0.1$``$2.4 keV) observations in 1994 and 1995, the instruments that observed SGR 1900$`+`$14 had good sensitivity within the energy range 2$``$10 keV. To make an adequate comparison of the source flux between different epochs, we have chosen to use this nominal energy range (2$``$10 keV) for flux measurements. For this reason, we have excluded the ROSAT observations from our sample. For the first two BeppoSAX NFI observations (1997 May and 1998 September) as well as for the two ASCA observations, we used the flux measurements reported earlier (Woods et al. 1999a, Hurley et al. 1999b and Murakami et al. 1999, respectively). We report here on more recent NFI observations made in March and April 2000.

### 2.1 BeppoSAX NFI Observations

The BeppoSAX NFI observed the source on 2000 March 30 and April 26, approximately one year after the last detected burst activity from SGR 1900$`+`$14. The source exposure times were 40 ks and 40 ks for the Medium-Energy Concentrator Spectrometers (MECS) and 15 ks and 18 ks for the Low-Energy Concentrator Spectrometer (LECS) during the respective observations. In each observation, the SGR was aligned with the optical axis of the instruments. We used source extraction regions of 4 and 8 for the MECS and LECS, respectively. Due to the low Galactic latitude and dim intensity of SGR 1900$`+`$14, concentric rings of 6.4$`{}_{}{}^{}`$9.6 and 9$`{}_{}{}^{}`$13 were chosen from each pointing for background subtraction with the MECS and LECS, respectively. The resulting spectra were then analyzed using XSPEC v10.00 along with the most recent response matrices and effective area corrections.

We fit the data (0.12$``$10.5) to four different models, a simple power-law (PL), a blackbody, a thermal bremsstrahlung, and a power-law plus a blackbody (PL$`+`$BB), all modified by interstellar absorption. Both the blackbody and thermal bremsstrahlung models yielded poor fits to the data, while the PL and PL$`+`$BB models returned reduced $`\chi ^2`$ values below 2. We find no significant difference in the spectral parameters (including source flux) between the two observations. For this reason, we decided to fit the two data sets simultaneously in order to better constrain the model parameters. We did allow for independent normalization factors for the LECS and MECS instruments as there tends to be a 5$``$10% systematic difference between the detector normalizations. As with the pre-outburst BeppoSAX observation from 1997 May, the PL$`+`$BB model provided the best fit to the data (see Table 1). We quantified the preference of this model over the PL model using the F-test. The probability that the measured $`\chi ^2`$ difference (31) between the PL$`+`$BB model and the PL model would occur by chance is 1 $`\times `$ 10-6. The unabsorbed 2$``$10 keV X-ray flux measured in 2000 March/April is 1.03(5) $`\times `$ 10-11 ergs cm-2 s-1 with $``$20% of this flux coming from the thermal blackbody component. We note that the flux level in these recent observations is consistent with the flux measured in 1997 May (Fx = 0.99(4) $`\times `$ 10-11 ergs cm-2 s-1 \[Woods et al. 1999a\]), hence, we conclude that the source has returned to its quiescent flux level. Furthermore, all other spectral parameters measured in the 2000 observations are consistent with the 1997 BeppoSAX measurements with the exception of the power-law photon index ($`\alpha `$) which has steepened slightly (3.5$`\sigma `$) between the two observations.

The event times for the combined MECS units were corrected to the Solar-system barycenter and we then performed an epoch-fold period search within each observation between 5.15 and 5.25 s. We detect the pulsed signal in each observation and measure significant spin down since the last reported X-ray measurements in early 1999 (Woods et al. 1999b) as well as between the two BeppoSAX observations. The details of the timing of SGR 1900$`+`$14 will be discussed elsewhere (Woods et al. 2001). From the earlier BeppoSAX observations, we noted that despite a large change in source flux and pulse profile of the SGR, the root-mean-square (RMS) pulsed fraction remained constant. For the observations of 2000 March and April, we measure RMS pulse fractions of 9.4% $`\pm `$ 1.7% and 10.4% $`\pm `$ 1.7%, respectively. These values are consistent with the measurements from 1998 September (11.4% $`\pm `$ 1.5%) and 1997 May (12.2% $`\pm `$ 1.1%). This result shows the pulse fraction is constant at least within the four BeppoSAX observations which span $``$3 years and varying levels of source intensity and activity.

### 2.2 ASM Observations

Remillard et al. (1998) reported that analysis of the real-time data stream from the RXTE All-Sky Monitor (ASM) revealed a detection of SGR 1900$`+`$14 at $``$100 mCrab (2$``$12 keV) approximately two hours after the giant flare of August 27. A reexamination of the complete production light curve shows that an additional 90-s observation was performed at only $``$24 minutes after the flare, and this observation found SGR 1900$`+`$14 to be 270 $`\pm `$ 17 mCrab. By $``$7 h after the flare, the intensity of the source had fallen below the ASM detection threshhold of $``$20 mCrab, and has not been detected reliably since. An observation just $``$20 minutes before the flare shows no detectable emission from SGR 1900$`+`$14.

The ASM performed two passes over SGR 1900$`+`$14 during the 2.5 h after the flare. We have checked the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) data for the five 90-s ASM observations performed during these passes. We find that the SGR was not occulted by the Earth for BATSE and there is no indication of significant burst activity in the large-area detector discriminator data (1.024 s time resolution). Therefore, the following ASM measurements reflect only the persistent, non-burst flux level. During each of the five 90-s ASM observations, or dwells, the best-fit average count rates for the SGR were calculated in three energy channels (1.5$``$3, 3$``$5, and 5$``$12 keV), and these count rates were averaged over each pass to yield two intensity measurements. To convert these intensities into fluxes, we took a simple power-law spectrum with a fixed slope of $``$2.2, as derived from the BeppoSAX observations of 1998 September 15, integrated over an estimated effective area for the ASM, and fit the spectral normalizations to the observed intensties. The effective area table for the ASM is a theoretical construct, compiled during the design phase of the experiment, and may differ from the actual response of the instrument. The unabsorbed flux (2$``$10 keV) at 0.4 and 2.1 hours following the beginning of the flare decayed from (7.2 $`\pm `$ 0.5) to (2.6 $`\pm `$ 0.5) $`\times `$ 10-9 ergs cm-2 s-1. The errors here represent the statistical errors convolved with a 3% systematic error as is standard for the ASM data. There are likely further systematic errors that we are not able to accurately account for (e.g. uncertainties in the ASM effective area, spectral evolution between the ASM observations and the BeppoSAX observations).

### 2.3 PCA Observations

Due to the fact that the PCA is not an imaging instrument and there exist at least two bright and variable X-ray sources (4U 1907$`+`$09 and XTE J1906$`+`$09) close in angle to SGR 1900$`+`$14, extracting the SGR flux from these measurements required an alternative approach. From the four BeppoSAX NFI observations of SGR 1900$`+`$14, we know that despite the observed changes in source intensity and pulse profile, the RMS pulsed fraction remained constant. If this property of the SGR holds at all times, then a measure of the pulsed intensity would relate directly to the net source intensity. A pulsed intensity measurement with the PCA is much “cleaner” in that there is no ambiguity with where the signal originates. Under the premise that the pulsed fraction remains constant, we set out to measure the RMS pulsed intensity of SGR 1900$`+`$14 and indirectly, the net source flux using the PCA observations.

First, the data were grouped into segments where the PCA instrument configuration was constant, that is, observations with the same set of PCUs on and a fixed pointing. One $``$3 day segment near 1998 September 8 was eliminated from our sample due to the occurrence of a bright outburst from XTE J1906$`+`$09 (Takeshima, Corbet & Swank 1998) which dominated the count rate in the PCA. Next, the 2$``$10 keV data for each selected interval were folded on the phase connected solutions reported in Woods et al. (1999b) for the data prior to 1999 and on ephemerides reported in Woods et al. (2001) for subsequent observations. For each detector configuration, the collimator efficiency111The collimator efficiency files for each PCU can be found at the following www address: http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/users/keith/fieldofview/collimator.html in units of counts s-1 PCU3-1 was calculated and the count rates in each phase bin of the folded profile were corrected accordingly. Finally, the RMS pulsed intensity for each folded light curve was measured.

## 3 The Flux History

The flux history of SGR 1900$`+`$14 over $``$3.8 years is given in the middle panel of Figure 1. The scale on the left vertical axis corresponds to the BeppoSAX and ASCA measurements. The right axis applies to the PCA pulsed flux measurements. The relative normalization between the pulsed flux measurements and the net source flux measurements was calculated in the following way. Prior to burst reactivation of the source in 1998 May, there was one observation each with RXTE, BeppoSAX, and ASCA. The two flux measurements during quiescence with the two imaging instruments, BeppoSAX in 1997 May and ASCA in 1998 April, are consistent with one another. Since our only measurements of a change in source flux are during a burst active interval, we assume the SGR flux is constant in quiescence. Therefore, we defined the normalization to be the ratio of the source flux as measured by BeppoSAX prior to burst activity in 1997 May to the PCA pulsed intensity measurement from 1996 September. We use this normalization to define the source flux from the PCA measurements during the burst active period. Note the good agreement of the pulsed intensity measurements (PCA) to nearly simultaneous net source intensity measurements (BeppoSAX and ASCA) following reactivation (inset of Figure 2). This strengthens our initial hypothesis that the pulsed fraction remains constant, even during burst active phases of the source. The pulsed intensity observations made with the PCA suggest the net source intensity of SGR 1900$`+`$14 increased by a factor $``$20 over the quiescent level approximately 1 day after the giant flare.

We next compared the changes observed in source flux with the change in burst activity. We quantified the burst activity using the burst rate as observed with BATSE (top panel of Figure 1). Note the good correlation between the rise and decay of the burst activity and the rise and decay of the SGR flux. We find a significant increase of the source flux during the initial burst activity of 1998 May/June, which shows the flux enhancement correlates not only with the giant flare, but also with the more common recurrent bursts. The next measurements were made starting $``$1 day after the giant flare and found the SGR flux was more than an order of magnitude brighter than the level during quiescence. This transient flux enhancement was an artifact of the August 27th flare, lasting $``$40 days, and is discussed in greater detail below. The next sequence of pulsed flux measurements was acquired over the first seven months of 1999. During these observations, we observe a gradual decline of the X-ray flux as well as the burst occurrence rate of the SGR. It is not clear from these observations whether the flux enhancement within this portion of the X-ray lightcurve is connected with a slow decay component associated with the August 27th flare (Kouveliotou et al. 2001), or instead, the sum of multiple smaller enhancements from burst activity in the last few months of 1998 and the first half of 1999. The next observations of SGR 1900$`+`$14 were performed in 2000 March$``$July, starting 11 months after the last recorded burst emission from the source. These observations found the source flux had returned to the pre-outburst level (see also section 2).

Focusing now on the large flux change observed following the giant flare, we find the net/pulsed flux decayed according to a power-law relative to the onset of the flare. Using both the net and the scaled pulsed flux measurements, we fit the data to a power-law and find a decay constant of $``$0.713 $`\pm `$ 0.025. This value is consistent with the power-law flux decay (F $``$ t-0.8±0.1) found following the burst of August 29 (Ibrahim et al. 2000). Extrapolating the fit to the August 27th X-ray light curve back towards the flare itself, we find fair agreement between the flux level we would expect and the ASM flux measurements (Figure 2). We note, however, that each of the ASM measurements are significantly higher than the expectation from the fit. This discrepancy may be the result of assumptions made on the source spectrum and/or the instrumental response (see section 2.2), non-negligible flux enhancements following the numerous bursts during late September, a second component related to the flare itself, and/or a slightly later reference epoch. We know from the 1998 May/June PCA measurement that the recurrent burst activity increased the persistent SGR flux by a factor $``$2. The bursts following the giant flare in late August and early September do not likely contribute significantly to the already large enhancement present from the August 27th flare, however, the cumulative burst activity in mid/late September may provide comparable flux enhancements. This effect would tend to flatten the observed power-law decay slope. Another possibility is there are two components present in the ASM measurements directly after the flare; one associated with the long X-ray tail we observe for many days after the flare and one directly connected to the flare itself. Finally, the ASM measurements move closer to the fit when we push forward our reference epoch to $``$14 min after the onset of the flare. The observed duration of the August 27th flare in $`\gamma `$-rays ($`>`$15 keV) is $``$6 min, so it is certainly conceivable that the SGR “afterglow” did not begin until somewhere near the end of the flare.

## 4 Pulse Profile Changes

In addition to undergoing large changes in source intensity, the pulse profile of SGR 1900$`+`$14 was altered dramatically during the burst active interval of 1998. Variation of the folded profile of the persistent X-ray source (2$``$10 keV) had been noted previously (Kouveliotou et al. 1999; Murakami et al. 1999; Woods et al. 1999b) as well as the pulse-to-pulse evolution ($`>`$15 keV) found within the tail of the August 27th flare (Mazets et al. 1999; Feroci et al. 2000). Here, we combine the observations we have analyzed with the archival data in order to show the evolution of the folded profile over the last 3.8 years (Figure 3). The light curves in the top row were all recorded prior to the August 27th flare while the panels in the bottom row are all following. Both top and bottom rows are folded over the energy range 2$``$10 keV. The last panel on the top row was taken during/after significant burst activity in 1998 May/June, yet it shows very little change from previous observations. The two middle panels were generated from Ulysses data (25$``$150 keV) of the giant flare. The left panel was created by folding the data from 40$``$100 s after the onset of the flare, while the right panel displays the folded profile from 280$``$330 s post-trigger. The time resolution of the Ulysses data is 0.5 s, therefore, these folded profiles are under-resolved. There are certainly finer structures in these profiles that are artificially removed due to this effect. The difference between the two light curves, however, is evident: the complexity of the pulse profile diminishes with time through the burst. This is in agreement with what has been reported elsewhere (Mazets et al. 1999; Feroci et al. 2000). The same qualitative behavior can be seen in the persistent emission by comparing the top and bottom rows of Figure 3, despite being generated over a different energy range (2$``$10 keV). From this observation, we conclude that the bulk of the pulse profile change observed in the persistent emission is independent of source flux and appears to depend solely on the temporal relation of the observations to the August 27$`\mathrm{th}`$ flare. This suggests that whatever caused the evolution of the pulse profile through the giant flare, also produced the change in the persistent X-ray light curve.

## 5 Discussion

We have shown that the X-ray counterpart to SGR 1900$`+`$14 underwent large changes in source intensity correlated with the burst activity of the source during 1998. Following the August 27$`\mathrm{th}`$ flare, the persistent SGR flux reached a maximum. This flux enhancement decayed over the next $``$40 days as a power-law in time with an exponent $``$0.71. All measurements of the RMS pulse fraction suggest this parameter remains constant despite the large excursion in the X-ray intensity of the SGR. Finally, we found the dramatic pulse profile change is independent of the change in luminosity of the source, but appears to be a direct consequence of the August 27th flare.

Pulse profile changes in a fixed energy band are not uncommon in accreting X-ray binaries. However, these changes are typically correlated with variations in mass accretion rate (see e.g. White, Nagase & Parmar 1995). For a constant mass accretion rate (i.e. X-ray luminosity), the pulse profiles tend to remain unchanged. This is not the case for SGR 1900$`+`$14. The persistent source flux has now (March$``$July 2000) recovered to its quiescent level, yet the pulse profile has remained invariant since 1998 August 28. This result severely constrains all accretion models for SGRs.

The giant flare of August 27 released a large amount of energy in $`\gamma `$-rays ($`E_{\mathrm{Aug}27}10^{44}`$ ergs \[Mazets et al. 1999\]) within a relatively short time period ($``$6 min). A fraction of a percent of this energy was stored by the star, and slowly re-radiated over the next $``$40 days to form the observed power-law decay of the persistent X-ray flux (Figure 2). Given the high luminosity associated with the giant flare, the radiative momentum released in the burst would excavate any hypothetical accretion disk out to a large radius where the diffusion time is of the order of months to years (Thompson et al. 2000). Therefore, accretion could not be re-established in such a short time ($``$103 s) as to account for the giant flare afterglow. Furthermore, kinetic energy loss (rotation) is insufficient by orders of magnitude as an energy source. We conclude that the observed power-law flux decay is clear evidence for a fundamentally new type of energy dissipation in neutron stars.

The constant pulse fraction through the long X-ray tail, and the non-recovery of the pulse profile, argues strongly against the possibility of the afterglow from the August 27th flare being a strictly localized phenomenon. If the persistent, declining output were concentrated in a small fraction of the stellar surface or magnetosphere without reprocessing at larger radius, then the pulse fraction would be expected to change dramatically as the persistent flux returned to its baseline value. Taken at face value, this suggests that energy was released globally throughout the crust and magnetosphere of the star. The magnetosphere is the more likely location for the enhanced persistent emission because the BeppoSAX observations show the flux increase occured in the non-thermal power-law component of the persistent spectrum, not in the thermal blackbody.

We now address how the observed pulse profile change can be accommodated within the framework of the magnetar model. In the case of an isolated magnetar, the pulse shape of the persistent X-ray source is governed by the distribution of magnetic field and magnetospheric currents. Since the flux has recovered to the pre-outburst (i.e. quiescent) level, but the pulse profile has not, we conclude that either the X-ray flux is being reprocessed far outside the region where the non-thermal continuum is generated, or the distribution of currents within the magnetosphere was severely altered during the August 27th flare.

There is good evidence that the surface magnetic field of SGR 1900$`+`$14 had a multi-polar structure during the August 27th giant flare, based upon the complex profile observed in the large amplitude pulsations (Feroci et al. 2000). The hyper-Eddington flux of X-rays is easily channeled along (partially) open magnetic field lines in the presence of a small amount of matter. The reduction of the pulse profile from four sub-pulses to a single sub-pulse at the end of the giant flare has a simple explanation in terms of the diminishing volume of a trapped fireball (Feroci et al. 2000). Because the persistent X-ray flux is channeled passively along the field near the star, the higher multipoles are expected to remain following the giant flare. However, a giant flare may involve a global twist of the stellar magnetic field, which drives a long-lived electrical current to re-scatter X-rays at the electron cyclotron resonance near 10 stellar radii. In this model, the transient decay of the persistent emission requires the added presence of sharper field gradients, which could be created by a fracture of the rigid crust during the giant flare (Thompson et al. 2000). In light of these new observations, relevant concerns regarding this model would be the reappearance of the blackbody (presumably surface) emission in the presence of the optically thick scattering screen (which limits the amount of dissipation taking place within the screen), as well as the constancy of the pulse fraction before and after the giant flare.

We now consider an alternative explanation for the observed flux and pulse profile changes in which the magnetospheric currents of SGR 1900$`+`$14 are modified substantially through a global reconfiguration of the magnetic field. The reemergence of the blackbody component following the decay of the flux enhancement suggests that we are again observing radiation directly from the stellar surface. The observation of the simple pulse profile in the presence of the thermal component implies that the stellar magnetic field is now predominantly dipolar. Since the pulse profile was observed to change from complex (multi-polar field structure) to simple (di-polar field structure) within the August 27th flare, this line of reasoning suggests that the stellar magnetic field underwent a global reconfiguration at the time of the giant flare. This scenario requires a reorganization of the magnetic field both inside and outside the star, which would proceed on a hydromagnetic timescale rather than the much shorter dynamical time of the stellar magnetosphere, and could plausibly take as long as $``$300 s. A model suggesting a global field reconfiguration during the giant flare was proposed independently by Ioka (2000). Ioka’s model was developed to explain earlier observations related to the spin period evolution of this SGR near the time of the August 27th flare (Woods et al. 1999b). In Ioka’s model, gravitational energy was proposed to power the flare through a substantial change in the moment of inertia of the star and consequently, the total amount of magnetic energy released ($`10^{49}`$ ergs) would exceed by several orders of magnitude the $`10^{44}`$ ergs observed in the $`\gamma `$-ray band. One may also consider a global field reconfiguration scenario with magnetic energy as the power source for the giant flare. If the higher multipoles carry a significant fraction of the external magnetic energy, then removing them would require expending some 100$``$1000 times more energy than the observed output of the flare. In any model involving a global field reconfiguration of a magnetar, the total internal/external field energy must be nearly conserved during the transition, and currently, we find no compelling reason for this to be the case. In addition, if the magnetospheric currents were significantly modified during the giant flare, then the near equality between the “baseline” X-ray flux before and after the giant flare would be coincidental.

A strong, evolving magnetic field is the foundation of the magnetar model for the SGRs. The dramatic change in the pulse profile of SGR 1900$`+`$14 following the August 27th flare provides strong evidence for some type of large-scale reconfiguration of the magnetic field. The two models involving stellar field dynamics outlined above each have their own merits when compared to the observations, however, both involve some level of coincidence. Moreover, the global field reconfiguration model posesses a fundamental flaw in that the energetics of the model do not match the observations. Without a comprehensive model to explain the cause and long-lasting effects of the August 27th flare, the giant flares, and to a lesser extent SGRs in general, remain quite enigmatic.

Acknowledgements – We thank the referee for useful comments on this manuscript. We are deeply indebted to the help we received from the RXTE team, particularly Evan Smith and the SOF for scheduling these extensive observations and Craig Markwardt for his assistance with part of the data analysis. We also thank the RXTE/SDC, the SAX/SDC (particularly J.M. Muller), and HEASARC for pre-processing the RXTE/PCA and BeppoSAX data. We thank Rob Duncan for useful comments on this manuscript. This work was funded primarily through a Long Term Space Astrophysics program (NAG 5-9350) for both PMW and CK. MHF and EG acknowledge support from the cooperative agreement NCC 8-65. CT acknowledges support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and NASA grant NAG 5-3100. PMW, CK, EG and CT appreciate useful discussions at the ITP funded by NSF grant PHY99-07949.


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# References

Object picture of quasinormal ringing on the background of small Schwarzschild Anti-de Sitter black holes

Jiong-Ming Zhub,111e-mail:wlxzhu@shtu.edu.cn, Bin Wang a,b,222e-mail:binwang@fma.if.usp.br and Elcio Abdallaa,333e-mail:eabdalla@fma.if.usp.br

a Instituto De Fisica, Universidade De Sao Paulo, C.P.66.318, CEP 05315-970, Sao Paulo, Brazil

b Department of Physics, Shanghai Teachers’ University, P. R. China

## Abstract

We investigated the evolution of a scalar field propagating in small Schwarzschild Anti-de Sitter black holes. The imaginary part of the quasinormal frequency decreases with the horizon size and the real part of the quasinormal frequency keeps nearly as a constant. The object-picture clarified the question on the quasinormal modes for small Anti-de Sitter black holes. Dependence of quasinormal modes on spacetime dimensions and the multipole index for small Anti-de Sitter black holes have also been illustrated.

PACS number(s): 04.30.Nk, 04.70.Bw

The dynamics of radiative fields in black hole spacetimes has been investigated for almost thirty years. It is well known that after the initial pulse, there is a quasinormal ringing outside the black hole. The frequencies and damping times of the “ring” are entirely fixed by the structure of the background spacetime and is believed to be a unique fingerprint to directly identify the black hole existence. Detection of these quasinormal modes is expected to be realized through gravitational wave observation in the coming decade . In order to extract as much information as possible from gravitational wave signal, it is necessary to understand exactly the behavior of quasinormal modes in different black hole spacetimes. For black holes in asymptotically flat spacetimes, especially spherical cases, the quasinormal modes have been studied extensively \[1-7\]. The study for the nonspherical black holes is developing \[8-10\]. Considering the case when the black hole is immersed in an expanding universe, the quasinormal modes of black holes in de Sitter spaces have also been investigated recently .

Motivated by the recent discovery of the AdS/CFT correspondence, the investigation of the quasinormal modes of AdS black holes becomes more appealing nowdays. The quasinormal frequencies of AdS black holes have direct interpretation in terms of the dual conformal field theory (CFT). The first study of the quasinormal ringing for a conformally coupled scalar in AdS space was performed by Chan and Mann . Recently, Horowitz and Hubeny  considered the scalar quasinormal modes on the background of Schwarzschild AdS black holes in four, five and seven dimensions. They claimed that for large AdS black holes both the real and imaginary parts of the quasinormal frequencies scale linearly with the black hole temperature. This result was supported in a recent study for quasinormal modes of three-dimensional BTZ black holes  and five dimensional Schwarzschild AdS black holes . Considering that the Reissner-Nordstrom (RN) AdS solution provides a better framework than the Schwarzschild AdS geometry and may contribute significantly to our understanding of space and time, we generalized the study of quasinormal modes in RN AdS black holes . We found that the charge in RN AdS black holes showed a richer physics concerning quasinormal modes and further information on AdS/CFT correspondence. For small AdS black holes the study is not thorough. It was argued that quasinormal frequencies do not continue to scale with temperature in . However this argument was challenged by the superpotential approach  where the authors claimed that the mode is still proportional to the surface gravity for very small AdS holes. The available results on quasinormal modes for small AdS black holes mainly relied on indirect arguments and focused much on quasinormal frequencies. The object-picture of the evolution of test-field around the small AdS black hole background is lacking.

In order to clarify the clash on quasinormal mode behavior for small AdS holes, we will analyse in detail here the wave propagation of massless scalar field in small Schwarzschild AdS spacetimes. We will show that the direct picture of the evolution supports the argument of quasinormal frequencies for small AdS black holes in . Whereas the temperature begins to increase as one decreases black hole horizon $`r_+`$ below the AdS radius $`R`$, we observed that it takes longer time for the perturbation to settle down, which means that the imaginary part of the frequency continues to decrease with $`r_+`$. Moreover, we will give the object-picture of the relation between quasinormal ringing to spacetime dimensions for small AdS holes. The behavior of modes for small AdS black holes of multipole order $`l`$ will also be displayed.

The $`d`$ dimensional Schwarzschild AdS black hole metric is given by

$$ds^2=f(r)dt^2+f^1(r)dr^2+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_{d2}^2$$
(1)
where

$$f(r)=\frac{r^2}{R^2}+1(\frac{r_0}{r})^{d3}.$$
(2)
$`R`$ is the AdS radius and $`r_0`$ is related to the black hole mass via $`M={\displaystyle \frac{(d2)A_{d2}r_0^{d3}}{16\pi G_d}}`$, where $`A_{d2}=2\pi ^{(d1)/2}/\mathrm{\Gamma }({\displaystyle \frac{d1}{2}})`$ is the area of a unit $`(d2)`$ sphere. The black hole horizon is at $`r=r_+`$, the largest root of $`f=0`$. In this paper, we will concentrate our attention on black holes with $`r_+<R`$.

Let us consider a massless scalar field $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ in the Schwarzschild AdS spacetime, obeying the wave equation

$$\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Phi }=0$$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{}=g^{\alpha \beta }_\alpha _\beta `$ is the d’Alembertian operator. If we decompose the scalar field according to

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(t,r,angles)=r^{{\displaystyle \frac{2d}{2}}}\psi (t,r)Y(angles)$$
(4)
then each wave function $`\psi `$ satisfies the equation

$$\frac{^2\psi }{t^2}+f\frac{}{r}(f\frac{\psi }{r})=V\psi $$
(5)
where

$$V=f[\frac{l(l+d3)}{r^2}\frac{(2d)(d4)}{4r^2}f\frac{2d}{2r}\frac{f}{r}].$$
(6)
Using the tortoise coordinate $`r^{}={\displaystyle \frac{dr}{f}}`$, eq(5) can be written as

$$\frac{^2\psi }{t^2}+\frac{^2\psi }{r^2}=V\psi .$$
(7)
The potential $`V`$ is positive and vanishes at the horizon, which corresponds to $`r^{}=\mathrm{}`$. It diverges at $`r=\mathrm{}`$ corresponding to a finite value of $`r^{}`$, which requires that $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ vanishes at infinity. This is the boundary condition to be satisfied by the wave equation for the scalar field in AdS space. The behavior of the potential differs quite a lot from that of the asymptotically flat space and de Sitter space. As argued in , it is this distinguishing feature that contributes to the special wave propagation in AdS spacetimes.

Introducing the null coordinates $`u=tr^{}`$ and $`v=t+r^{}`$, (7) can be recast as

$$4\frac{^2}{uv}\psi =V(r)\psi $$
(8)
where $`r`$ is determined by inverting the relation $`r^{}(r)=(vu)/2`$.

The future black hole horizon is located at $`u=\mathrm{}`$. Since the quasinormal modes of AdS space are defined to be modes with only ingoing waves near the horizon, we will pay more attention on the wave dynamics near the event horizon.

The two-dimensional wave equation (7) can be integrated numerically, using for example the finite difference method suggested in . Using Taylor’s theorem, it is discretized as

$$\psi _N=\psi _E+\psi _W\psi _S\delta u\delta vV(\frac{v_N+v_Wu_Nu_E}{4})\frac{\psi _W+\psi _E}{8}+O(ϵ^4)$$
(9)
where the points $`N,S,E`$ and $`W`$ form a null rectangle with relative positions as: $`N:(u+\delta u,v+\delta v),W:(u+\delta u,v),E:(u,v+\delta v)`$ and $`S:(u,v)`$. $`ϵ`$ is an overall grid scalar factor, so that $`\delta uϵ\delta v`$. Considering that the behavior of the wave function is not sensitive to the choice of initial data, we set $`\psi (u,v=v_0)=0`$ and use a Gaussian pulse as an initial perturbation, centered on $`v_c`$ and with width $`\sigma `$ on $`u=u_0`$ as

$$\psi (u=u_0,v)=\mathrm{exp}[\frac{(vv_c)^2}{2\sigma ^2}].$$
(10)
The inversion of the relation $`r^{}(r)`$ needed in the evaluation of the potential $`V(r)`$ is the most tedious part in the computation. First of all, we choose a suitable value of $`r`$ as our starting point $`r_0`$, which should be quite close to $`r_+`$. It corresponds to the point ( $`u_0,v_0`$), the lowest point on the numerical grid. In the outer loop of our computation, $`u`$ increases by $`ϵ`$ for every circle, while $`v`$ is kept as a constant. So we have $`\delta r^{}=\delta u/2ϵ/2`$ . In the inner loop, as $`u`$ is kept unchanged, we should take $`\delta r^{}=\delta v/2ϵ/2`$. Then we can use the relations: $`\delta r=f(r)\delta r^{}`$ and $`r=r+\delta r`$ to get all the values of $`f(r)`$ and $`V(r)`$ at every point on the numerical grid step by step.

After the integration is completed, the value $`\psi (u_{max},v)`$ are extracted, where $`u_{max}`$ is the maximum value of $`u`$ on the numerical grid. Taking sufficiently large $`u_{max}`$, $`\psi (u_{max},v)`$ represents a good approximation for the wave function at the event horizon, which carries information about the quasinormal modes for AdS space of our interest. We fix $`R=1`$ in the following.

We now report results of our numerical simulations of evolving massless scalar field on a small Schwarzschild AdS black hole background.

For the four dimensional small black hole $`(r_+<R)`$, quasinormal ringings are displayed in Fig(1) for selected values of $`r_+`$ and multipole index $`l=0`$.

Figure 1: The wave functions for small AdS black holes in four-dimensions and with $`l=0`$

It is clear to see that the quasinormal ringing has the behavior of oscillatory exponential falloff, which is similar to that of large AdS holes shown in . This behavior differs from that of asymptotically flat spacetime \[2-7\] and also de Sitter spacetime . According to Ching et al , this difference can be attributed to the completely different boundary condition of AdS spacetime from that of asymptotically flat and de Sitter spacetimes. The oscillation appearing in the exponential tail is due to the waves bouncing off the divergent potential barrier at large $`r`$ in AdS space.

The damping time scale and oscillation time scale of the quasinormal ringing relates to imaginary ($`\omega _I)`$ and real ($`\omega _R`$) parts of the quasinormal frequencies. It is interesting to note that for small AdS black holes, the evolution of the test field experiences an increase of the damping time with the decrease of $`r_+`$. This corresponds to say that imaginary part of the quasinormal frequency $`\omega _I`$ decreases with $`r_+`$ for small AdS holes. Since the decay of the test field outside the black hole is due to the black hole absorption, it is natural to understand that when the black hole becomes arbitrarily small, the field will no longer decay. Thus this dependence of $`\omega _I`$ on black hole size for small black hole is reasonable.

When the AdS black hole becomes small enough ($`r_+`$ much smaller than $`R=1`$), from Fig(1) we learnt that the oscillation time scales do not differ much for different small holes. Thus the real part of the quasinormal frequencies $`\omega _R`$ is nearly a constant for small AdS holes.

For five and seven dimensional Schwarzschild AdS black holes, the results are similar. The object-picture of quasinormal ringing displayed here clarified the clash on quasinormal modes for small AdS black holes raised in  and . Our results support the argument given by Horowitz and Hubeny . The quasinormal modes for small AdS black holes will not depend on the black hole temperature as was the case for large AdS holes.

In Fig(2) we show the relation between quasinormal frequencies and spacetime dimension for small AdS Schwarzschild black hole with $`l=0`$.

Figure 2: The wave functions for different dimensional small AdS black holes with $`r_+=0.4,l=0`$.

For big Schwarzschild AdS black holes, Horowitz et al found that $`\omega _I`$ is almost independent of dimension, while in contrast $`\omega _R`$ does depend on the dimension . In Fig(2) we observed that for small AdS black hole the $`\omega _R`$ keeps the same dependence on dimension as that for big AdS hole, it increases with the increase of spacetime dimensions. However the characteristic of $`\omega _I`$ for small AdS holes differs a lot from that of big holes. We learnt that the damping time scales relate to spacetime dimensions. The higher the dimensions are, the longer the test field takes to settle down. This corresponds to the fact that $`\omega _I`$ becomes small for higher dimensions for small AdS holes. This property is very different from that of big AdS black holes.

We have so far discussed only of the lowest multipole index $`l=0`$. Now we show how wave dynamics behaves for the small Schwarzschild AdS background for different multipole index $`l`$.

Figure 3: Wave functions for small AdS black holes for $`r_+=0.4`$, with $`l=0,1,2,3`$

Fig(3) exhibits a picture consistent with that given in  for big AdS black holes. Increasing $`l`$, the evolution of the test field on the background small AdS holes experiences an increase of the damping timescale ($`\omega _I`$ decreases) and a decrease of the oscillation time scale ($`\omega _R`$ increases). The figure gave us an object-lesson: the evolution of the test field with the increase of multipole index for small AdS holes. Compared to the results given in , we found that dependence of quasinormal frequencies on multipole index is universal for big, intermediate and small AdS black holes.

In summary, we have studied the wave evolution around small Schwarzschild AdS black holes and revealed consistent and different results compared to that for large AdS black hole background. The quasinormal ringing associated with a massless scalar field propagation on a fixed background of small AdS black holes experiences an oscillatory exponential decay at the black hole horizon. The smaller the AdS black hole is, the larger is the time needed for the test field to settle down. However the oscillation time scales remain almost the same for enough small AdS holes. This result supports : for small AdS holes $`\omega _I`$ decreases with $`r_+`$ while $`\omega _R`$ keeps nearly as a constant, which is very different from the quasinormal modes for big AdS holes where modes are proportional to black hole temperature. The object picture we presented here clarified the clash on quasinormal modes for small AdS black hole in  and supports the indirect argument given in.

We have also learnt an object-lesson on the dependence of quasinormal ringing on spacetime dimensions for small AdS black holes. Despite the characteristic of $`\omega _R`$ similar to that of big AdS holes, it is interesting to find that $`\omega _I`$ for small AdS black holes is no longer almost independent of dimension as that for big AdS hole cases. It has been illustrated that $`\omega _I`$ decreases with the increase of spacetime dimensions for small AdS holes. The consistent picture of the quasinormal modes depending on the multipole index $`l`$ between small and big AdS holes has also been displayed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: This work was partically supported by Fundac$`\stackrel{~}{a}`$o de Amparo $`\stackrel{`}{a}`$ Pesquisa do Estado de S$`\stackrel{~}{a}`$o Paulo (FAPESP) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient$`\stackrel{´}{i}`$fico e Tecnol$`\stackrel{´}{o}`$gico (CNPQ). B. Wang would also like to acknowledge the support given by Shanghai Science and Technology Commission as well as NNSF, China under contract No. 10005004.


text:
# Cosmological history of stars and metals

## 1 Introduction

The history of the cosmic star formation rate (CSFR) in the universe has been inferred in an unprecedented way by combining the SFR in the local universe, the results of ground–based spectroscopic redshift surveys out to $`z1`$ (Lilly et al. 1996) and the results of deep photometric surveys like the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) in which galaxies photometric redshift have been determined by the Lyman dropout selection technique (Madau et al. 1996, hereafter M96). The resulting cosmic star formation history has been summarized in the so–called “Madau plot” which shows a rapid increase up to $`z1`$ and then a decrease at higher $`z`$ with a peak at $`z`$1.5 - 2. However, one of the large uncertainties in deriving the CSFR from the comoving luminosity density is dust obscuration. Indeed, the faint objects have been selected optically and therefore may represent only the tip of the iceberg because dust absorbs large amounts of UV–optical rest–frame light, causing underestimation of the SFR by a large factor. This factor is still a matter of debate, for exemple Pettini et al. (1998) have estimated the extinction on the Lyman Dropout galaxies (at $`z>2`$) and found a factor of $`3`$ while Meurer et al. (1997) derived for the same objects a factor as large as 15. Finally, there might exist a population of star–forming galaxies at high–$`z`$ which are completely enshrouded in dust and therefore remain undetected in the optical/near infrared as revealed by the ISOCAM–HDF survey (Aussel et al. 1998, Elbaz et al. 1999 ). Moreover, new estimates of the the global star formation rate have been reported. The first one is derived from the analysis of deep ISO images of the CFRS by Flores et al. (1999, hereafter F99) who revised previous star formation density by a factor of $`3`$ upward at $`0z1`$ and the second one comes from an analysis of Lyman Break Galaxies in the HDF by Steidel et al. (1999, hereafter S99) who found a higher SFR at $`z4`$ than previous estimate by Madau et al. 1998 (hereafter M98) and therefore found no evidence for a significant decline of the CSFR at high redshifts.
The history of CSFR can also be observed by its imprint on the background radiation. The first detection in DIRBE data of the IR/submm background by Puget and his collaborators (1996) at a level comparable and even higher than the optical counterpart, suggests that a large fraction of the energy of young stars is absorbed by dust and reradiated in the IR/submm. Understanding the nature and redshift of the sources responsible for the infrared background is of great importance for galaxy evolution studies. Several deep surveys have been undertaken in the submm wavelengths range at 450 and 850 $`\mu `$m with the SCUBA Bolometer Array and ISO satellite (at 175 $`\mu `$m), in order to resolve this background (Kawara et al. 1997, Barger et al. 1998, Hughes et al. 1998, Eales et al. 1999).
Recent advances in high resolution spectroscopy of high redshift systems like damped Ly$`\alpha `$ systems (DLAs), has provided us with precious information on early phases of chemical enrichment (Pettini et al. 1997, hereafter P97) and neutral gas content of the universe (Storrie-Lombardi et al. 1996) casting some light on the cosmic chemical evolution. The aim of this paper is to explore the predictions that models of stellar evolution self–consistently coupled with chemical evolution code would make on the metal and stellar enrichment history of the universe. Briefly, given the cosmic star formation history we calculate the unattenuated spectral luminosity density at different redshifts. Adopting a model of dust absorption we then compute the attenuated comoving luminosity density at different redshifts and wavelengths which is then compared to available observations. Combining this with the extragalactic background will allow us to constrain the models. Predictions on the cosmic chemical enrichment and on the stellar content of the universe are then derived.
This paper is organized as follow: section 2 describes the models and the inputs we used. In section 3, we discuss our models predictions in the light of available photometric constraints, such as the comoving luminosity densities from UV/vis to FIR and the cosmic infrared background radiation (CIB). In section 4 we derive the chemical enrichment history of the universe and its stellar content. Throughout the paper we use a value of the Hubble constant H$`{}_{0}{}^{}=50`$ km s-1 Mpc-1, a density parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.`$

## 2 The models

In this work we study the global properties of galaxies averaged in large comoving volumes. We are in particular interested in the stellar and heavy element content of the universe that our models would predict using available observational constraints. This is based on chemo–spectrophotometric models that follow in a self–consistent way the evolution of stars, dust and metals. These models are based on stellar population synthesis code which is coupled to simple chemical evolution models and dust absorption. The basic ingredients of our models are described bellow (more details can be found in Devriendt et al. 2000, hereafter DGS)

### 2.1 The stellar emission

Our models are based on up–dated libraries of theoretical stellar tracks and spectra allowing for the building of new sets of spectrophotometric evolutionary models that take into account the effect of metallicity. These models use the Geneva group stellar evolutionary tracks (Schaller et al. 1992, Schaerer et al. 1993a,b) for five metallicities $`Z=0.001`$, 0.004, 0.008, 0.02, 0.04. The main stellar evolution phases include all the important stages except for low mass stars (less than 1.7 M) those tracks stop at the Giant Branch tip. We thus use the more recent track evolution of low mass stars which go from the Zero–main sequence up to the end of EAGB for only two metallicities $`Z=0.02`$ and $`Z=0.001`$ (Charbonnel et al. 1996). For the other metallicities we simply interpolate between the available Geneva tracks. Choosing the Geneva group tracks allows the use of the $`Z`$–dependent stellar yields of Maeder (1992) which insures the consistency when coupling spectrophotometric and chemical evolutions. For the stellar spectra we use theoretical spectra by Kurucz (1992), with the advantage that it avoids the use of the transformations of bolometric luminosity log Lbol to magnitude MV, of log Teff to Spectral Type, and to luminosity classes, which are rather uncertain for the hottest ones. For the coldest stars (K and M–type stars) with $`T`$ 3750 K we prefer to use models from Bessell et al. (1989, 1991a,b) for M Giants (for various Z) and from Brett (1995a,b) for M dwarfs, with a single metallicity Z=0.02. The initial helium content of the gas from which stars form is computed with an initial He fraction $`Y=0.24`$ and assuming $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }Z=3`$.

### 2.2 Modelling the Cosmic Chemical Evolution

A model of chemical evolution allows the abundance evolution in the ISM and the abundance distribution in stars by solving a simple set of equations (Tinsley 1980). For a population of galaxies, the chemical evolution equations can be expressed in terms of comoving densities of stars, neutral gas and heavy–elements $`\mathrm{\Omega }_g`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{}`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Z`$ in unit of the critical mass density $`\rho _c=7\times 10^{10}`$ M Mpc-3 :

$$\frac{dZ\mathrm{\Omega }_g}{dt}=Z\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{}+\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}_Z\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{out}^Z$$
(1)
$`Z`$ is the mean abundance of the ISM of galaxies defined by the ratio $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Z`$/$`\mathrm{\Omega }_g`$. $`\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{out}^Z`$ is the comoving rate of outflowing metal–enriched gas out of galaxies. In the case of closed–box models this term vanishes.
We use the $`Z`$–dependent yields of M92 with moderate mass loss for massive stars. For intermediate stars we use the Renzini and Voli (1981) yields. We do not make the assumption of instantaneous recycling but we track metals ejected by stars at each timestep and let new stars form out of the enriched gas, assuming instantaneous mixing of the metals.

### 2.3 Dust spectra

A non–negligible part of the energy released by stars in the UV/optical wavelengths is absorbed by dust and re–emitted in the IR/submm. A normal spiral such as our Galaxy emits $`30\%`$ of its light in the far–infrared (see Dwek et al. 1998 and reference therein). Taking dust obscuration into account is crucial for the census of stellar mass, metals and energy. Models of SEDs which correctly connect UV/vis and IR/submm windows are therefore needed. However modelling dust extinction is not an easy task since we have to address critical issues such as the dust properties, its geometrical distribution with respect to stars and its chemical evolution. Models of SEDs that take into account the extinction and emission effects of dust in a consistent way have been developed by several authors (Franceschini et al. 1991, 1994), Fall, Charlot and Pei (1996), Silva et al. (1998), Pei et al. (1999, hereafter PFH), but all these models assume a simple relation between dust and metal abundance of the gas and do not have a detailed modelling of the starlight re–processing by dust grains. More detailed and self–consistent models of SEDs called STARDUST have recently been developped by DGS. Here we will follow DGS to compute the global SED from UV/vis to IR/submm wavelengths.

#### 2.3.1 Dust absorption

The first step is to compute the optical depth. We will first assume a simple prescription given by:

$$\tau _\lambda (t)=(\frac{A_\lambda }{A_V})_Z_{}\tau _V$$
(2)
where $`(A_\lambda /A_V)_{}`$ is the extinction curve in our Galaxy (solar metallicity) from Mathis et al. (1983). In principle one should relate $`\tau _\lambda (t)`$ to the mean H–column density which is proportional to the mean gas density times the gaseous disk scale ($`N_H(t)=M_g(t)/\pi r_g^2`$ $`\rho _{gas}r_g`$). To account for this, we introduce a “fudge” factor $`\tau _V`$.
As in Guiderdoni and Rocca–Volmerange (1987, hereafter GRV87), we assume a face–on “slab” geometry distribution where the gas and the stars which contribute mainly to dust heating are distributed with equal height scales in the disks. Following GRV87, if $`\tau _\lambda (t)`$ is the optical thickness of the disks at wavelength $`\lambda `$ and time $`t`$, the mean internal extinction correction (averaged over inclination angle $`i`$) is then given by:

$`A_\lambda (t)`$ $`=`$ $`2.5\mathrm{log}<{\displaystyle \frac{1.exp(a_\lambda \tau _\lambda (t)/cosi)}{a_\lambda \tau _\lambda (t)/cosi}}>_i,`$ (3)
The factor $`a_\lambda (1\omega _\lambda )^{1/2}`$ takes into account the effect of the albedo $`\omega _\lambda `$. This “slab” geometry is an intermediate case between the “screen” geometry, where the dust layer lies in front of the stars layer and the “sandwich” geometry, where the dust layer is trapped between two star layers, geometries which leads respectively to a larger and a smaller absorption (Franceschini and Andreani 1995, Andreani and Franceschini 1996).
We have also to take into account the evolution of $`\tau _V`$ with redshift. As already mentionned, $`\tau _V`$ is in principle related to the mean H–column density $`N_H`$ and depends on the geometrical structure of the gas. From scaling argument $`\tau _V\rho _{gas}r_g`$ we would expect that $`\tau _V(1+z)^\alpha `$ with $`\alpha =2`$. However, other factors might evolve, such as the properties of the dust or the actual geometry of the gas distribution within the disk so that the redshift–dependence might deviate from the simple scaling relation. In this case, the slope index $`\alpha `$ is taken as an adjustable parameter whose value is determined when consistency with the HDF rest–frame UV luminosities is obtained.
The above modelling of the mean optical thickness is very crude and probably does not reflect the complexity of dust extinction. In the following, we will use the GRV87 prescription in which the mean optical thickness is explicitly related to the mean metallicity and to $`N_H`$. Following GRV87 and Franceschini et al. (1991) we will assume that the mean face–on optical depth of the average gas disk at time $`t`$ and wavelength $`\lambda `$ is given by :

$$\tau _\lambda (t)=\left(\frac{A_\lambda }{A_\mathrm{V}}\right)_Z_{}\left(\frac{Z(t)}{Z_{}}\right)^s\left(\frac{N_\mathrm{H}(t)}{\mathrm{2.1\; 10}^{21}\mathrm{at}\mathrm{cm}^2}\right),$$
(4)
where the mean H column density (accounting for the presence of helium) is written as:

$`N_\mathrm{H}(t)\mathrm{6.8\; 10}^{21}g(t)f_\mathrm{H}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2.`$
where g(t) is the gas fraction. A galaxy with $`g0.2`$ has $`<N_H>1.410^{21}`$ atom cm-2, in good agreement with the observational value for late–type galaxies (GRV87). $`f_\mathrm{H}`$ is a parameter which allows us to increase the H column density and is close to unity for normal spirals. The extinction curve here depends on the gas metallicity $`Z(t)`$ according to power law interpolations based on the Solar Neighbourhood and the LMC and SMC with $`s=1.35`$ for $`\lambda <2000`$ $`\mathrm{\AA }`$ and $`s=1.6`$ for $`\lambda >2000`$ $`\mathrm{\AA }`$. The derived extinction curves depend strongly on the adopted geometry, here we restricted ourselves to the “slab” geometry; keeping in mind that it might introduce some uncertainties in the obscuration curves. It would be interesting to compare this with more detailed models of extinction curves (see for example Ferrara et al. 1999) but this is beyond the scope of this present work.

Finally, the observed flux $`F_{o\lambda }^{}`$ is then related to the emitted (intrinsic) flux $`F_\lambda ^{}`$ by:

$$\frac{F_{o\lambda }^{}}{F_\lambda ^{}}=10^{0.4A_\lambda (t)}$$
(5)
The bolometric luminosity released at IR/submm wavelengths is then given by:

$$L_{IR}(t)=F_\lambda ^{}(t)(110^{0.4A_\lambda (t)})𝑑\lambda .$$
(6)
#### 2.3.2 Dust emission

In order to compute the IR/submm emission spectra, one needs to redistribute the total IR luminosity $`L_{IR}`$ over the whole range of wavelengths. This is achieved by using a dust model of the ISM. We assume the three–component (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Very Small Grains and Big Grains) dust model developed by Désert et al. (1990) according to Maffei’s method (Maffei 1994) which uses the observational correlations of the IRAS flux ratios with $`L_{IR}`$.

Three components are considered in Désert et al. model spectra:

* the Big grains (BG). The are made of silicates and graphite and have sizes between 10 nm and 0.1 $`\mu `$ m and are almost in thermal equilibrium. They are reasonably described by a modified blackbody $`ϵ_\nu B_\nu (T_{BG})`$ with emissivity $`ϵ_\nu =\nu ^m`$ (where the index $`1m2`$.
* Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Because these molecules are small in size (less than 1 nm) they never reach thermal equilibrium when excited by the UV/vis radiation. Their temperature fluctuates and can exceed the equilibrium temperature which produces the 12 $`\mu `$m excess and the bands at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7 and 11.3 $`\mu `$m.
* Very small grains (VSG) with sizes between 1 and 10 nm also made of silicates and graphite. As PAHs they never reach thermal equilibrium and therefore their emission spectrum is much broader than the black body spectrum at a given temperature.

The temperature TBG of the Big Grains is given by the IRAS 60/100 colours provided we fix the value of the emissivity index m. The derived temperature is between 15 and 50 K. Here we adopt the standard value of $`m=1.5`$. Model spectra with $`m=1.5`$ seems to cover all the range of observations in the submm (Guiderdoni et al. 1998). The contributions of each component is then calculated iteratively from the 12/100, 25/100 and 60/100 ratios. The resulting spectra are computed from few $`\mu `$m to several mm and evolve with the total IR luminosity LIR such that galaxies with higher LIR emit preferentialy at shorter $`\lambda `$ (Fig. 1). Here we will adopt the model spectra of dust emission with total IR luminosity of $`L_{IR}=10^{10}L_{}`$ which is typical of normal galaxies and corresponds to a temperature of BG of $`T_{BG}16.5`$ K. In spite of its limitations, this method is able to reproduce the FIR photometry of various individual galaxies (Maffei 1994).

### 2.4 Assumptions and inputs of the model

We choose three classes of CSFR. The high SFR model (model $`H`$) choosen in order to be consistent with the recent estimations based on IR surveys (F99) and large ground–based survey of Lyman–Break galaxies (S99). The low SFR models $`L_1`$ and $`L_2`$ are consistent with the UV/optical derived SFR with respectively a declining and a flat SFR at high redshifts (see table 1). Fig. 2 shows the three models of CSFR we used, together with a compilation of the CSFR estimations derived from UV/vis and IR surveys.
In our modelling of dust obscuration we used the HDF rest–frame attenuated 1500 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$ emissivity at $`z=34`$ (from S99 for models $`H`$ and $`L_1`$ and from M96 for model $`L_2`$) and the local emissivity at 100 $`\mu `$m to determine the two adjustable parameters, $`\tau _V(z=0)`$ and $`\alpha `$.
In the case of the closed–box approximation (i.e $`\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{out}^Z=0`$) the equations of chemical evolution (eq. 1) are solved assuming that at early times the stars form from some amount of gas whose initial gas density fraction is fixed by imposing that the present–day amount of HI gas is of the order of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_g(0)5\times 10^4`$ (as estimated by Briggs & Rao 1993). In the case where the closed–box approximation is relaxed, we will assume for simplicity a constant outflow $`\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{out}^Z=const`$. Note here that the ISM gas content of the galaxies is assumed to be mainly due to neutral hydrogen gas HI; we neglect both the ionized and molecular forms of the gas (HII and $`H_2`$). This approximation is reasonable at high redshifts, as measurements of gas content of Damped Lyman $`\alpha `$ systems show low ionization states (Viegas 1995) and low molecules abundances (Levshakov et al. 1992, Petitjean et al. 2000). Locally, this approximation may not hold since the present–day late–type galaxies contain on average a non–negligible fraction of $`H_2`$ (Young & Scoville 1991) which would result in a factor of two uncertainty on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{gas}`$ or more if $`H_2`$ contribution to the ISM gas is more important (Pfenniger et al. 1994).
We adopt a Salpeter IMF $`\varphi (m)m^x`$ with $`x=1.35`$ for $`m_dmm_{up}`$ and $`m_d=0.1`$ M and $`m_{up}=100`$ M. This IMF has been found to be more reliable in reproducing the observed emissivities locally than the Scalo IMF (Lilly et al. 1996, M98).
Finally, we will suppose to a first order that the results are independent of the cosmological parameters. Discussion of the effect of the cosmological parameters on the luminosity density can be found in (Cassé et al. 1998).

## 3 The results and comparison to observations

Deep galaxy surveys have allowed the probing of rest–frame UV/optical to NIR emissivities of high and low redshift galaxies. When combined with the CIB measurement it provides us with crucial constraints on the global history of star formation.

### 3.1 The rest–frame comoving emissivity from UV/optical to IR/submm

We are interested in the global evolution of the radiation from both the stellar and the dust component. This can be described by the comoving luminosity density $`\rho _\nu `$ as a function of redshift defined as the energy radiated per unit frequency per unit of co–moving volume at redshift $`z`$. The intrinsic stellar emissivity can be expressed in terms of the global star formation rate $`\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{}`$

$$\rho _\lambda ^{}=\rho _c_0^tF_\lambda ^{}(tt^{})\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{}(t^{})dt^{}$$
(7)
where $`F_\lambda ^{}(tt^{})`$ is the stellar population spectrum as computed by our population synthesis code (see DGS for details).
The spectral luminosity density at each redshift is computed by simply summing the observed (attenuated) stellar radiation and the dust radiation: $`\rho _\nu (z)=\rho _{o\lambda }^{}(z)+\rho _\lambda ^d(z)`$ where $`\rho _{o\lambda }^{}`$ is related to the intrinsic (unabsorbed) emissivity by: $`\rho _{o\lambda }^{}=10^{0.4A_\lambda }\rho _\lambda ^{}`$.
We first fix the adjustable parameters of the models $`\alpha `$ and $`\tau _V`$, by fits to the observed luminosity density at 1500 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$ at $`z=34`$ and the local to the local 100 $`\mu `$m emissivity respectively. The best–fit solutions are obtained for the following values of the parameters ($`\tau _V`$, $`\alpha `$): (1.3, 1.4), (1.2, 1.4) and (1.2, 0.8). The corresponding values of the extinction factor $`A_V`$ varies from $`A_V=0.45`$ locally to $`A_V=22.5`$ at $`z=34`$ for model $`H`$. In the case of model $`L_2`$, $`A_V`$ is almost constant, varying from 0.45 locally to 0.53 at $`z=34`$. Fig. 3 shows the resulting $`z=0`$ co–moving spectral luminosity density from UV/vis to IR/submm wavelengths, on which are superimposed the data. Our models with a Salpeter IMF give overall good fit to the present–day stellar light from UV/vis to IR. Except for the 2.2 $`\mu `$m emissivity which seems to be overestimated by $`H`$–type models, our models are able reproduce the data not only at 100 $`\mu `$m (which is expected since it is used as an input) but also at $`\lambda =0.44`$, 2.2, 25, 60 $`\mu `$m, whatever the chosen CSFR history. This result shows that local co–moving emissivities are not sensitive to the CSFR and therefore are not suitable to constrain the star formation rate history. We also compute the resulting spectral luminosity density in the case where GRV87 prescription for $`\tau _\lambda (t)`$ is used and found no difference with models which use our simple prescription (eq. 2); the two SEDs are almost undistinguishable.
We use for the determination of dust emission a model with $`L_{IR}=10^{10}L_{}`$. To take into account the uncertainties in the FIR part of the SED, we run our models with a higher IR luminosity $`L_{IR}10^{12}L_{}`$ which is typical of the Ultra–Luminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs). As expected, we found that the peak emission in Far–Infrared (100 $`\mu `$m) is shifted toward shorter wavelengths, leading to a poorer fit to the data.

### 3.2 The Extragalactic Background Radiation

The second observational constraint is set by the extragalactic background light (EBL). Cosmological implications of the CIB on the CSFR have been discussed by several groups, for example M98, Dwek et al. (1998), Gispert et al. (2000). Here we use our models to derive the intensity of the background. The intensity $`I_\nu `$ of EBL results from integrating the emission coming from various extragalactic objects on the line of sight over the cosmic time.
The intensity $`I_\nu `$ at a given time t is given by the following:

$$I_\nu =\frac{c}{4\pi }_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑z\rho _{\nu (1+z)}\left|\frac{dt}{dz}\right|.$$
(8)
We here ignore the contribution of AGNs in heating the dust. Predictions of our models for the intensity of the background radiation in the optical and IR/submm 111Recent tentative of CIB detection at 2.2 and 3.5 $`\mu `$m has been reported by Gorjian et al. (2000), our best–fit model is consistent with their estimated intensity at 2.2 and 3.5 $`\mu `$m are shown in Fig. 4. The overall spectrum seems to be well reproduced by all the models regardless of their very different SFR histories. In particular, the shape of the submm part of the extragalactic background does not discriminate between the models, and is therefore not a very crucial probe of the star formation history. Instead, the CIB data point at 140 $`\mu `$m is very discriminant. Only mid–infrared derived CSFR at low–$`z`$ (model $`H`$) is able to correctly match this point while UV–derived low–$`z`$ CSFR ($`L_1`$ and $`L_2`$ models) , falls considerably short of the COBE detections at $`\lambda =140`$ $`\mu `$m. Moreover, the CIB is less sensitive to the CSFR shape at high–$`z`$. For example, had we chosen a model similar to $`H`$–model at low–$`z`$ but with a declining SFR at high–$`z`$, we would obtain an accpetable fit to the 140 $`\mu `$m data. This result suggests that the bulk of the energy in the FIR/submm is due to moderately obscured normal galaxies lying at low and moderate redshifts ($`0z1`$) and not by a population of heavily extinguished star–forming regions located at very high redshifts, as previously claimed (Blain et al. 1998, hereafter B98). We also show the predicted intensity of the background radiation when the GRV87 prescription for the optical depth $`\tau _\lambda `$ is used (eq. 4). As we can see there is no strong difference between the two prescriptions.
It is interesting to compare our result with other works. PFH have made use of many observational inputs (from QSOs absorption line surveys, optical imaging, redshift surveys, and FIRAS/DIRBE cosmic infrared background) to derive solutions for the cosmic histories of star formation rate. They found a global star formation rate which is higher than the UV–derived one, in good agreement with our result. Although their three solutions do not fit the CIB at 140 $`\mu `$m, their solutions are actually significantly below this data point (see their fig. 11). Our result in the other hand, is in disagreement with previous works in which it is claimed that the best CSFR solution is higher and flatter at high redshifts than the optically derived form (B98, Gispert et al. 2000). Note that these authors used a different approach than ours and did not use the point at 140 $`\mu `$m to discriminate between the models, as in the present work.

## 4 Cosmological history of metals

In order to get a consistent picture of the evolution of the universe, one should relate the CSFR to the metal enrichment of the universe and its stellar content. To achieve this goal we will use the CSFR model that account for all available data from UV/vis to FIR/submm wavelengths to compute the enrichment history of the universe.

### 4.1 Chemical enrichment of the ISM

Our knowledge of chemical evolution was based on local observations (mainly the solar neighbourhood) until the outcome of high–$`z`$ observations of damped Ly$`\alpha `$ systems, which allowed us to draw some conclusion about galaxy evolution in terms of the cosmic evolution of the mean metallicity and cool neutral gas. There are some indications that these DLAs represent the progenitors of present–day galaxies, although the nature of these objects is still a matter of debate. Moreover, it is not yet clear whether the mean HI weighted metallicity derived from current observations of DLAs is representative or not of the global metal enrichment of the Universe. The picture that emerges from the DLAs observations is that i) the neutral gas content is decreasing from $`z3`$ to the present–epoch, corresponding to the conversion of gas into stars and that ii) the metallicity is decreasing with increasing redshift, with very low metallicities at high redshifts, which would suggest that these systems are in their early phase of enrichment.
Figure 5 shows the mean abundance of metals in the interstellar medium $`Z_{ISM}`$ as function of redshifts compared to the metallicity at high redshift derived from the observed abundance of Zn in damped Ly$`\alpha `$ systems (Pettini et al. 1997), which should agree if DLA and field galaxies have the same metal enrichment. The uncertainty in the data is still large though, and no attempt has been made to correct for the observational biases which could potentially alter our interpretation of the DLAs metal abundances (Prantzos & Boissier 2000 and reference therein) but see Savaglio 2000. We find that in the closed–box assumption, our best–fit to the CIB at 140 $`\mu `$m model clearly fails to reproduce the data; it overpredicts the mean metallicity by a factor of $`3`$ at $`2z3`$. This is less than that found by B98 with their submm–derived CSFR (a factor as high as 5). Our best–fit model also produces a mean metallicity $`Z(0)`$ which is $`2`$ times larger than the metallicity in the local universe if we assume it to be solar.
We have therefore relaxed the closed–box approximation and allowed for some outflowing of metal–enriched gas from the galaxies. As we can see from figure 5, the agreement with the data becomes better than in the closed–box models. If we further assume that the ejected metals are responsible for IGM pollution, we can use our model to estimate the amount of metals present in the IGM.

### 4.2 Chemical enrichment of the IGM

The detections of CIV and Si IV absorption lines in the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest as reported (Tytler et al. 1995, Songaila & Cowie 1996, Songaila (1997) can potentially give us information about the early enrichment of the intergalactic medium (IGM) with metals (Gnedin & Ostriker 1997). If we assume that the IGM metal content can well be represented by the metallicity inferred from Ly$`\alpha `$ clouds, we may compare our prediction of the density of metals to the observations of CIV and Si IV absorption lines in the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest. Assuming that ejected metal–enriched gas is uniformely distributed in the intergalactic medium, we estimate the mean co–moving density of metals in the IGM by integrating $`\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}_{out}^Z`$ over the time. We find that the density of heavy–elements at $`z=0`$ is $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{IGM}=7.7\times 10^5`$ (i.e $`\rho _m=5.4\times 10^6`$ M Mpc-3). At $`z3.2`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{IGM}6\times 10^7`$ in agreement within the error bar with the data point of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{IGM}8\times 10^7`$ reported by Songaila (1997). This result supports the general belief that the chemical enrichment of the IGM may be due to the outflowing of metals from galaxies, although this scenario is still a matter of debate (see Gnedin 1997 for an alternative scenario).
It has been pointed out that if no differences exist between field and clusters galaxies, then clusters of galaxies can provide us with information about the chemical enrichment history of the universe (Renzini 1997). We therefore estimate the local IGM mean metallicity $`Z_{IGM}(0)=\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{IGM}/\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ and find it to be of the order of $`10^3`$. Using the low value of D/H ( $`\eta _{10}5.3`$) by Burles & Tytler (1998) ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_b0.077`$) and assuming a solar metallicty of 0.016, this value yields to a global mean metallicity of 6% solar which is $`4`$ times smaller than the metallicity derived from X–ray observations of the intra–cluster medium ICM ($`0.25Z_{}`$). As suggested by Renzini (1997), this cluster–field difference may be due to either cluster–related processes such as stripping or ram pressure or to a flatter IMF in clusters relative to field galaxies. Note that if we use the high value of D/H $`10^4`$ (e.g. Lemoine et al. 1999 for a review) yielding $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b0.02`$, we would obtain a global metallicity of 0.2 solar which is close to the ICM metallicity.
Regarding the large uncertainties in the observations and the limitations of our models (a constant metal–enriched gas ejection is certainly a crude approximation), we should be cautious before drawing any conclusion regarding the global enrichment of the universe.

### 4.3 Stellar content of the universe

Our models can also provide the global evolution of the stellar content. Fig. 6 shows the inferred evolution of the stellar content as a function of the cosmic epoch for each of the models of CSFR . The estimate of the current $`z=0`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{}(0)0.0040.008`$ comes from Briggs (1997). We can see that the best–fit model to the 140 $`\mu `$m data point predicts a present–day stellar mass density larger by at least a factor of two than the current value. This is very important as it shows that models able to produce enough energy in the FIR part of the CIB lead to an excess of stars as compared to the present–day estimates. Note that the FIR/submm derived CSFR of B98 produce values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{}(0)`$ at least a factor of two higher than that which our models produce; this is due to their higher CSFR at high redshifts. The current $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{}(0)`$ estimate is still uncertain though. There are several sources of errors that can bias the inferred $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{}(0)`$, such as the uncertainties in the derived luminosity functions parameters $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{}`$ and $`L^{}`$; on the estimation of the contribution of starlight from low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies; in the adopted stellar M/L ratio of disks, spheroids and irregulars. However all these effects are not very important and cannot account for the discrepancy. More exotic solutions should therefore be invoked. Several solutions are possible, first it is possible that some stars (extragalactic stars, machos) are missed in the census of the stellar budget but it is unlikely that we missed that significantly.
Second, contamination by AGN causes problems that are more important than we think. We know from IRAS and SCUBA observations and recently from X–ray Chandra observations (Barger et al. 2000) that a population of dust enshrouded AGNs do exist (Sanders and Mirabel 1996). However it is still unclear how important this contamination is as it is difficult to discriminate between a pure starburst and a dusty AGN in the object identification process. Therefore, it is highly probable that a large fraction of the CIB may be due to the dust enshrouded AGN population. AGN contamination also complicates the derivation of the star formation rate history from the observed luminosities even in the multi–wavelengths surveys (as the one derived by F99), although it is less critical than in the UV wavelengths.
Third, our adopted Salpeter IMF is responsible for such a discrepancy. A IMF biased against low–mass stars, would reduce the number of long–lived stars and thus attenuate the discrepancy. Evidence of a shallow mass function below 1 M has been observed in the Galactic disk (Gould et al. 1996) and more recently in the Galactic bulge (Zoccali et al. 2000). A heavily biased IMF has also been suggested from microlensing data (Chabrier 1999).

## 5 Conclusions

We have used a series of self–consistent chemo–spectrophotometric models which take into account the metallicity and dust obscuration effects to study the global evolution of spectrophotometric properties together with the stellar, chemical and radiation content of the galaxies averaged over a large co–moving volume, independently of their individual details and properties.

$``$ We find that our models with a Salpeter IMF reproduce fairly well the observed present–day comoving luminosity density at $`\lambda =0.44\mu `$m and 2.2 $`\mu `$m although mid–infrared derived CSFR ($`H`$–model) appears to overproduce the light at $`\lambda =2.2\mu `$m. At wavelengths dominated by the dust emission (at $`\lambda =25`$, 60 and 100 $`\mu `$m), we find good agreement with the observations independent of the choosen CSFR.

$``$We show that the point at 140 $`\mu `$m is crucial for constraining the CSFR history and seems to favour a higher comoving star formation rate at low redshifts than the UV/optically derived one; however the shape at high redshifts of the CSFR is not well constrained by the CIB measurements, contrary to previous claims.

$``$ We suggest that the main contribution to the bulk of the CIB and more specifically to the energy at 140 $`\mu `$m is due to normal galaxies, lying at low and moderate redshifts, and not to distant and dusty galaxies as previously suggested.

$``$ Concerning the history of the metal enrichment, we find that in the frame of closed–box evolution, our best–fit model to the CIB at 140 $`\mu `$m overpredicts the metallicity as observed in DLAs. A better agreement is obtained in the case of a model with some outflowing metal–enriched gas.

$``$ Assuming that the ejected metal–enriched material is responsible for the IGM metallicity we derive, the IGM metal content and found it to be consistent within the error bar with the metals in the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest. However, we cannot derived conclusions regarding the IGM metal–enrichment given the large uncertainties in the data and the crudness of our metal enrichment treatment.

$``$ Our best–fit model to the CIB at $`\lambda =140`$ overpoduces the present–day stellar mass density $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{}(0)`$ by a factor of at least $`2`$ as compared to the current value. If the CIB at $`\lambda =140`$ $`\mu `$m is correct, then this discrepancy and the excess of light at $`\lambda =2.2`$ $`\mu `$m could be explained by our choice of Salpeter IMF. This would then be an indication in favour of an IMF which is biased toward massive stars, opening a new debate on the universality of the initial mass function. However, one may keep in mind that our calculations have been done under the assumption that the FIR/submm background is due to a stellar component only; we neglect any contribution of AGNs in dust heating, which is probably not true.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are very gratefull to A. Blanchard for fruitful discussions. We thank the referee A. Ferrara for his useful comments which helped us to improve the content of this paper. RS acknowledges support from AAS Chretien Grant.