Model Predictions for Deep Cosmological Surveys with SPICA-SAFARI

¹ Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, I–40127 Bologna, Italy
² Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, I–40127 Bologna, Italy
³ Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – IFSI, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, I–00133 Roma, Italy
⁴ University of Cardiff – School of Physics and Astronomy, 5 The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3YB, United Kingdom
⁵ Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, I–35122 Padova, Italy

Abstract

We use a new backward evolution model to make predictions for the cosmological surveys in the far-infrared to be conducted by the SAFARI instrument on board of SPICA. The model, which is able to reproduce all the main constraints provided by ISO and Spitzer (source counts, redshift and luminosity distributions), considers different evolutionary properties for four IR populations, defined through a detailed SED-fitting analysis. The fraction of sources with identified AGN signature (~50%) is higher than in other models available in the literature, but is consistent with very recent Spitzer results. We discuss the extragalactic surveys that could be carried on for different scientific purposes (i.e. confusion limited, large and shallow) in the bands covered by SAFARI.