Letter to the Editor

First results from HerMES on the evolution of the submillimetre luminosity function^*

¹ Cardiff School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queens Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK e-mail: Steve.Eales@astro.cf.ac.uk
² Astronomy Centre, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK
³ Herschel Science Centre, European Space Astronomy Centre, Villanueva de la Cañada, 28691 Madrid, Spain
⁴ Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
⁵ Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
⁶ Laboratoire AIM-Paris-Saclay, CEA/DSM/Irfu - CNRS - Université Paris Diderot, CE-Saclay, pt courrier 131, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁷ Astrophysics Group, Imperial College London, Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK
⁸ California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
⁹ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA
¹⁰ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, OAMP, Université Aix-marseille, CNRS, 38 rue Frédéric Joliot-Curie, 13388 Marseille Cedex 13, France
¹¹ Space Science Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853-6801, USA
¹² Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
¹³ Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
¹⁴ Dept. of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, CASA 389-UCB, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
¹⁵ Observational Cosmology Lab, Code 665, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
¹⁶ Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, vicolo Osservatorio, 3, 35122 Padova, Italy
¹⁷ Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
¹⁸ 511 H street, SW, Washington, DC 20024-2725, USA
¹⁹ ESO, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
²⁰ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, MS65, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA02138, USA
²¹ UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
²² Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), bâtiment 121, Université Paris-Sud 11 and CNRS (UMR 8617), 91405 Orsay, France
²³ National Radio Astronomy Observatory, PO Box O, Socorro NM 87801, USA
²⁴ Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, MS 100-22, California Institute of Technology, JPL, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
²⁵ School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Alan Turing Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK and Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
²⁶ Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Kamuela, HI, 96743, USA
²⁷ Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, CNRS, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, 98bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
²⁸ Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK
²⁹ Space Science & Technology Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, UK
³⁰ Institute for Space Imaging Science, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, T1K 3M4, Canada
³¹ Astrophysics, Oxford University, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK
³² Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada
³³ Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, UK

Received: 31 March 2010
Accepted: 5 May 2010

Abstract

We have carried out two extremely deep surveys with SPIRE, one of the two cameras on Herschel, at 250 μm, close to the peak of the far-infrared background. We have used the results to investigate the evolution of the rest-frame 250-μm luminosity function out to z = 2. We find evidence for strong evolution out to z 1 but evidence for at most weak evolution beyond this redshift. Our results suggest that a significant part of the stars and metals in the universe today were formed at z 1.4 in spiral galaxies.