松原 英雄

Although it is now recognized that low surface brightness galaxies (LSBs) constitute a large fraction of the number density of galaxies, many of their properties are still poorly known. Based on only a few studies, LSBs are often considered to be “dust poor”, that is, with a very low amount of dust. For the first time, we use a large sample of LSBs and high surface brightness galaxies (HSBs) with deep observational data to study the variation of stellar and dust properties as a function of the surface brightness-surface mass density. Our sample consists of 1631 galaxies that were optically selected (with ugrizy-bands) at z < 0.1 from the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) Wide field. We used the large multiwavelength set of ancillary data in this field ranging from UV to the far-infrared wavelengths. We measured the optical size and the surface brightness of the targets and analyzed their spectral energy distribution using the CIGALE fitting code. Based on the average r-band surface brightness (μ̄_e), our sample consists of 1003 LSBs (μ̄_e > 23 mag arcsec⁻²) and 628 HSBs (μ̄_e ≤ 23 mag arcsec⁻²). We found that the specific star formation rate and specific infrared luminosity (total infrared luminosity per stellar mass) remain mostly flat as a function of surface brightness for both LSBs and HSBs that are star forming, but these characteristics decline steeply when the LSBs and HSBs are quiescent galaxies. The majority of LSBs in our sample have negligible dust attenuation (< 0.1 mag), and only about 4% of them show significant attenuation, with a mean V-band attenuation of 0.8 mag. We found that the LSBs with a significant attenuation also have a high r-band mass-to-light ratio (M/L_r > 3 M_⊙/L_⊙), making them outliers from the linear relation of surface brightness and stellar mass surface density. These outlier LSBs also show similarity to the extreme giant LSBs from the literature, indicating a possibly higher dust attenuation in giant LSBs. This work provides a large catalog of LSBs and HSBs as well as detailed measurements of several optical and infrared physical properties. Our results suggest that the dust content of LSBs is more varied than previously thought, with some of them having significant attenuation that makes them fainter than their intrinsic value. With these results, we will be able to make predictions on the dust content of the population of LSBs and how the presence of dust will affect their observations from current and upcoming surveys like JWST and LSST.

We study the galaxy merger fraction and its dependence on star formation mode in the5.4 square degrees of the North Ecliptic Pole-Wide field. We select 6352 galaxies withAKARI 9{\mu}m detections, and identify mergers among them using the Gini coefficientand M20derived from the Subaru/HSC optical images. We obtain the total infraredluminosity and star formation rate of galaxies using the spectral energy distributiontemplates based on one band, AKARI 9{\mu}m. We classify galaxies into three differentstar formation modes (i.e. starbursts, main sequence, and quiescent galaxies) andcalculate the merger fractions for each. We find that the merger fractions of galaxiesincrease with redshift atz<0.6. The merger fractions of starbursts are higher thanthose of main sequence and quiescent galaxies in all redshift bins. We also examinethe merger fractions of far-infrared detected galaxies which have at least one detectionfromHerschel/SPIRE. We find thatHerscheldetected galaxies have higher mergerfraction compared to non-Herscheldetected galaxies, and bothHerscheldetected andnon-Herscheldetected galaxies show clearly different merger fractions depending onthe star formation modes.

ABSTRACT Galaxy clusters provide an excellent probe in various research fields in astrophysics and cosmology. However, the number of galaxy clusters detected so far in the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) field is limited. In this work, we provide galaxy cluster candidates in the AKARI NEP field with the minimum requisites based only on the coordinates and photometric redshift (photo-z) of galaxies. We used galaxies detected in five optical bands (g, r, i, z, and Y) by the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), with additional data from the u band obtained from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) MegaPrime/MegaCam, and from the IRAC1 and IRAC2 bands from the Spitzer space telescope for photo-z estimation. We calculated the local density around every galaxy using the 10th-nearest neighbourhood. Cluster candidates were determined by applying the friends-of-friends algorithm to over-densities. A total of 88 cluster candidates containing 4390 member galaxies below redshift 1.1 in 5.4 deg2 were identified. The reliability of our method was examined through false-detection tests, redshift-uncertainty tests, and applications on the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) data, giving false-detection rates of 0.01 to 0.05 and a recovery rate of 0.9 at high richness. Three X-ray clusters previously observed by ROSAT and Chandra were recovered. The cluster galaxies show a higher stellar mass and lower star formation rate compared with the field galaxies in two-sample Z-tests. These cluster candidates are useful for environmental studies of galaxy evolution and future astronomical surveys in the NEP, where AKARI has performed unique nine-band mid-infrared photometry for tens of thousands of galaxies.

We use the SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) project as a template to demonstrate how deep spectrophotometric surveys covering large cosmological volumes over extended fields (1-15 square degrees) with a mid-IR imaging spectrometer (17-36 micron) in conjunction with deep 70 micron photometry with a far-IR camera, at wavelengths which are not affected by dust extinction can answer the most crucial questions in current galaxy evolution studies. A SPICA-like mission will be able for the first time to provide an unobscured three dimensional (3-D, i.e. x, y and redshift z) view of galaxy evolution back to an age of the Universe of less than ~2 Gyrs, in the mid-IR rest-frame. This survey strategy will produce a full census of the Star formation Rate (SFR) in the Universe, using Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) bands and fine-structure ionic lines, reaching the characteristic knee of the galaxy luminosity function, where the bulk of the population is distributed, at any redshift up to z ~3.5. Deep follow-up pointed spectroscopic observations with grating spectrometers { onboard the satellite}, across the full IR spectral range (17-210 micron), would simultaneously measure Black Hole Accretion Rate (BHAR), from high-ionization fine-structure lines, and SFR, from PAH and low- to mid-ionization lines in thousands of galaxies from solar to low metallicities, down to the knee of their luminosity functions. The analysis of the resulting atlas of IR spectra will reveal the physical processes at play in evolving galaxies across cosmic time, especially its heavily dust-embedded phase during the activity peak at the cosmic noon (z ~1-3), through IR emission lines and features that are insensitive to the dust obscuration.

We revisit the dependence of covering factor (CF) of dust torus on physical properties of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) by taking into account an AGN polar dust emission. The CF is converted from a ratio of infrared (IR) luminosity contributed from AGN dust torus ($L_{\rm IR}^{\rm torus}$) and AGN bolometric luminosity ($L_{\rm bol}$), by assuming a non-linear relation between luminosity ratio and intrinsic CF. We select 37,181 type 1 quasars at $z < 0.7$ from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 16 quasar catalog. Their $L_{\rm bol}$, black hole mass ($M_{\rm BH}$), and Eddington ratio ($\lambda_{\rm Edd}$) are derived by spectral fitting with QSFit. We conduct spectral energy distribution decomposition by using X-CIGALE with clumpy torus and polar dust model to estimate $L_{\rm IR}^{\rm torus}$ without being affected by the contribution of stellar and AGN polar dust to IR emission. For 5720 quasars whose physical quantities are securely determined, we perform a correlation analysis on CF and (i) $L_{\rm bol}$, (ii) $M_{\rm BH}$, and (iii) $\lambda_{\rm Edd}$. As a result, anti-correlations for CF-$L_{\rm bol}$, CF-$M_{\rm BH}$, and CF-$\lambda_{\rm Edd}$ are confirmed. We find that incorporating the AGN polar dust emission makes those anti-correlations stronger which are compared to those without considering it. This indicates that polar dust wind provably driven by AGN radiative pressure is one of the key components to regulate obscuring material of AGNs.

We present a five-broad-band (grizy) photometric catalogue of Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) optical imaging observations at around the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) where the AKARI infrared (IR) satellite conducted a large survey (NEP-Wide survey). The observations cover almost all the NEP-Wide survey field down to the depth of 28.1, 26.8, 26.3, 25.5, and 25.0 mag (5σ) at grizy, respectively. The five-band HSC catalogue contains about 2.6 million objects, and 70 959 AKARI NEP-Wide counterpart sources are identified in the catalogue. We added existing supplementary catalogues from the u band to the far-IR band, and estimated photo-z for the AKARI-HSC sources. We achieved σΔz/(1 + zs) = 0.06 and an outlier rate of 13.4 per cent at z = 0.2-1.5. Using the spectral energy distribution (SED) template fitting, we classified the AKARI-HSC galaxies into four categories, namely quiescent, star-forming, Type1 active galactic nucleus (AGN), and Type2 AGN, in each redshift bin. At z &gt 1, the mean SED of star-forming galaxies in mid-IR (3-10 μm) range is significantly different from that of spiral galaxies in the nearby Universe, indicating that many of star-forming galaxies at z &gt 1 contain a heat source capable of heating dust to temperatures that radiate thermal emission in the mid-IR range. Furthermore, we estimated the number fraction of AGNs (fAGN) in each bin of redshift and IR luminosity (LIR), and examined the dependence of redshift and LIR. In log(LIR/L·) = 11.0-14.0, the fAGN shows a significant increase with increasing redshift, regardless of the LIR bins. In contrast, the fAGN shows a slight increase against LIR at z &lt 1 and no increase with increasing LIR at z &gt 1.

To understand the cosmic accretion history of supermassive black holes, separating the radiation from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and star-forming galaxies (SFGs) is critical. However, a reliable solution on photometrically recognising AGNs still remains unsolved. In this work, we present a novel AGN recognition method based on Deep Neural Network (Neural Net; NN). The main goals of this work are (i) to test if the AGN recognition problem in the North Ecliptic Pole Wide (NEPW) field could be solved by NN; (ii) to shows that NN exhibits an improvement in the performance compared with the traditional, standard spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting method in our testing samples; and (iii) to publicly release a reliable AGN/SFG catalogue to the astronomical community using the best available NEPW data, and propose a better method that helps future researchers plan an advanced NEPW database. Finally, according to our experimental result, the NN recognition accuracy is around 80.29% - 85.15%, with AGN completeness around 85.42% - 88.53% and SFG completeness around 81.17% - 85.09%.

The $AKARI$ space infrared telescope has performed near- to mid-infrared (MIR) observations on the North Ecliptic Pole Wide (NEPW) field (5.4 deg$^2$) for about one year. $AKARI$ took advantage of its continuous nine photometric bands, compared with NASA's $Spitzer$ and WISE space telescopes, which had only four filters with a wide gap in the MIR. The $AKARI$ NEPW field lacked deep and homogeneous optical data, limiting the use of nearly half of the IR sources for extra-galactic studies owing to the absence of photometric redshifts (photo-zs). To remedy this, we have recently obtained deep optical imaging over the NEPW field with 5 bands ($g$, $r$, $i$, $z$, and $Y$) of the Hyper Suprime-Camera (HSC) on the Subaru 8m telescope. We optically identify AKARI-IR sources along with supplementary $Spitzer$ and WISE data as well as pre-existing optical data. In this work, we derive new photo-zs using a $\chi^2$ template-fitting method code ($Le$ $Phare$) and reliable photometry from 26 selected filters including HSC, $AKARI$, CFHT, Maidanak, KPNO, $Spitzer$ and WISE data. We take 2026 spectroscopic redshifts (spec-z) from all available spectroscopic surveys over the NEPW to calibrate and assess the accuracy of the photo-zs. At z < 1.5, we achieve a weighted photo-z dispersion of $\sigma_{\Delta{z/(1+z) } }$ = 0.053 with $\eta$ = 11.3% catastrophic errors.

The north ecliptic pole (NEP) field is a natural deep field location for many satellite observations. It has been targeted manytimes since it was surveyed by the AKARI space telescope with its unique wavelength coverage from the near- to mid-infrared(mid-IR). Many follow-up observations have been carried out and made this field one of the most frequently observed areas witha variety of facilities, accumulating abundant panchromatic data from X-ray to radio wavelength range. Recently, a deep opticalsurvey with the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) at the Subaru telescope covered the NEP-Wide (NEPW) field, which enabled us toidentify faint sources in the near- and mid-IR bands, and to improve the photometric redshift (photo-z) estimation. In this work,we present newly identified AKARI sources by the HSC survey, along with multi-band photometry for 91,861 AKARI sourcesobserved over the NEPW field. We release a new band-merged catalogue combining various photometric data from GALEXUV to the submillimetre (sub-mm) bands (e.g., Herschel/SPIRE, JCMT/SCUBA-2). About 20,000 AKARI sources are newlymatched to the HSC data, most of which seem to be faint galaxies in the near- to mid-infrared AKARI bands. This cataloguemotivates a variety of current research, and will be increasingly useful as recently launched (eROSITA/ART-XC) and futurespace missions (such as JWST, Euclid, and SPHEREx) plan to take deep observations in the NEP field.

We present an 850-μm mosaic map and extracted catalogue of submillimetre sources in the extended North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) region over about 2 deg2. The 850-μm map is constructed using newly obtained observations by SCUBA-2 at the East Asian Observatory's James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, carried out using the observatory's large programme opportunities. The recent 850-μm survey has extended the submillimetre data coverage by almost a factor of 4 compared to previous surveys, with a depth of σrms = 1.0-2.3 mJy beam−1. The catalogue contains 549 sources selected above a significance level of 4σ, where the false-detection rate is 10 per cent a higher threshold of 4.5σ is required in order to achieve a false-detection rate below 3 per cent, which results in 342 sources being selected. Despite the large spatial variation of the noise, the deboosted flux density of sources is comparable to results from the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey, which covered the central 0.6 deg2 of our survey area with better sensitivity. We construct the source counts at 850 μm, finding results in agreement with other 850-μm surveys in cosmological blank fields over S850 = 4-15 mJy. We find a slight excess of bright galaxies (S850 &gt 15 mJy), which can be considered to be at zphot = 2-4. The 850-μm data add valuable long-wavelength information to mid-infrared-selected sources from the AKARI NEP-deep and NEP-wide surveys, which will be helpful in preparing for future near-infrared to millimetre wavelength observations in the NEP region. Our 850-μm mosaic map and source catalogue will be made publicly available.

In order to understand the interaction between the central black hole and the whole galaxy or their co-evolution history along with cosmic time, a complete census of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is crucial. However, AGNs are often missed in optical, UV and soft X-ray observations since they could be obscured by gas and dust. A mid-infrared (mid-IR) survey supported by multiwavelength data is one of the best ways to find obscured AGN activities because it suffers less from extinction. Previous large IR photometric surveys, e.g., $WISE$ and $Spitzer$, have gaps between the mid-IR filters. Therefore, star forming galaxy (SFG)-AGN diagnostics in the mid-IR were limited. The $AKARI$ satellite has a unique continuous 9-band filter coverage in the near to mid-IR wavelengths. In this work, we take advantage of the state-of-the-art spectral energy distribution (SED) modelling software, CIGALE, to find AGNs in mid-IR. We found 126 AGNs in the NEP-Wide field with this method. We also investigate the energy released from the AGN as a fraction of the total IR luminosity of a galaxy. We found that the AGN contribution is larger at higher redshifts for a given IR luminosity. With the upcoming deep IR surveys, e.g., $JWST$, we expect to find more AGNs with our method.

The infrared (IR) space telescope conducted two surveys (Deep and Wide) in the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) field to find more than 100 000 IR sources using its infrared camera (IRC). IRC's nine filters, which cover wavebands from 2 to 24 μm continuously, make unique in comparison with other IR observatories such as. However, studies of the NEP-Wide field sources had been limited due to the lack of follow-up observations in the ultraviolet (UV) and optical. In this work, we present the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope MegaPrime/MegaCam u-band source catalogue of the NEP-Wide field. The observations were taken in seven nights in 2015 and 2016, resulting in 82 observed frames covering 3.6 deg$^2$. The data reduction, image processing, and source extraction were performed in a standard procedure using the elixir pipeline and the astromatic software, and eventually 351 635 sources have been extracted. The data quality is discussed in two regions (shallow and deep) separately, due to the difference in the total integration time (4520 and 13 910 s). The 5 limiting magnitude, seeing full width at half-maximum, and the magnitude at 50 per cent completeness are 25.38 mag (25.79 mag in the deep region), 0.82 arcsec (0.94 arcsec), and 25.06 mag (25.45 mag), respectively. The u-band data provide us with critical improvements to photometric redshifts and UV estimates of the precious infrared sources from the space telescope.

Context. Dusty high-z galaxies are extreme objects with high star formation rates (SFRs) and luminosities. Characterising the properties of this population and analysing their evolution over cosmic time is key to understanding galaxy evolution in the early Universe. Aims. We select a sample of high-z dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) and evaluate their position on the main sequence (MS) of star-forming galaxies, the well-known correlation between stellar mass and SFR. We aim to understand the causes of their high star formation and quantify the percentage of DSFGs that lie above the MS. Methods. We adopted a multi-wavelength approach with data from optical to submillimetre wavelengths from surveys at the North Ecliptic Pole to study a submillimetre sample of high-redshift galaxies. Two submillimetre selection methods were used, including: sources selected at 850 μm with the Sub-millimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2) SCUBA-2 instrument and Herschel-Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) selected sources (colour-colour diagrams and 500 μm risers), finding that 185 have good multi-wavelength coverage. The resulting sample of 185 high-z candidates was further studied by spectral energy distribution fitting with the CIGALE fitting code. We derived photometric redshifts, stellar masses, SFRs, and additional physical parameters, such as the infrared luminosity and active galactic nuclei (AGN) contribution. Results. We find that the Herschel-SPIRE selected DSFGs generally have higher redshifts (z = 2.57_−0.09^+0.08) than sources that are selected solely by the SCUBA-2 method (z = 1.45_−0.06^+0.21). We find moderate SFRs (797₋₅₀⁺¹⁰⁸M_⊙ yr⁻¹), which are typically lower than those found in other studies. We find that the different results in the literature are, only in part, due to selection effects, as even in the most extreme cases, SFRs are still lower than a few thousand solar masses per year. The difference in measured SFRs affects the position of DSFGs on the MS of galaxies; most of the DSFGs lie on the MS (60%). Finally, we find that the star formation efficiency (SFE) depends on the epoch and intensity of the star formation burst in the galaxy; the later the burst, the more intense the star formation. We discuss whether the higher SFEs in DSFGs could be due to mergers.

We present the physical properties of AKARI sources without optical counterparts in optical images from the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) on the Subaru telescope. Using the AKARI infrared (IR) source catalog and HSC optical catalog, we select 583 objects that do not have HSC counterparts in the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) wide survey field ($\sim 5$ deg$^{2}$). Because the HSC limiting magnitude is deep ($g_{\rm AB}$ $\sim 28.6$), these are good candidates for extremely red star-forming galaxies (SFGs) and/or active galactic nuclei (AGNs), possibly at high redshifts. We compile multi-wavelength data out to 500 $\mu$m and use it for Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) fitting with CIGALE to investigate the physical properties of AKARI galaxies without optical counterparts. We also compare their physical quantities with AKARI mid-IR selected galaxies with HSC counterparts. The estimated redshifts of AKARI objects without HSC counterparts range up to $z\sim 4$, significantly higher than that of AKARI objects with HSC counterparts. We find that: (i) 3.6 $-$ 4.5 $\mu$m color, (ii) AGN luminosity, (iii) stellar mass, (iv) star formation rate, and (v) $V$-band dust attenuation in the interstellar medium of AKARI objects without HSC counterparts are systematically larger than those of AKARI objects with counterparts. These results suggest that our sample includes luminous, heavily dust-obscured SFGs/AGNs at $z\sim 1-4$ that are missed by previous optical surveys, providing very interesting targets for the coming James Webb Space Telescope era.

We present an overview of the cryogenic system of the next-generation infrared observatory mission SPICA. One of the most critical requirements for the SPICA mission is to cool the whole science equipment, including the 2.5 m telescope, to below 8 K to reduce the thermal background and enable unprecedented sensitivity in the mid- and far-infrared region. Another requirement is to cool focal plane instruments to achieve superior sensitivity. We adopt the combination of effective radiative cooling and mechanical cryocoolers to accomplish the thermal requirements for SPICA. The radiative cooling system, which consists of a series of radiative shields, is designed to accommodate the telescope in the vertical configuration. We present thermal model analysis results that comply with the requirements to cool the telescope and focal plane instruments.

The Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) mission is to be launched into orbit around the second Lagrangian point (L2) in the Sun-Earth system. Taking advantage of the thermal environment in L2, a 2.5m-class large IR telescope is cooled below 8K in combination with effective radiant cooling and a mechanical cooling system. SPICA adopts a cryogen-free system to prevent the mission operation lifetime being limited by the amount of cryogen as a refrigerant. Currently, the mechanical cooler system with the feasible solution giving a proper margin is proposed. As a baseline design, 4K / 1K-class Joule-Thomson coolers are used to cool the telescope and thermal interface for Focal Plane Instruments (FPIs). Additionally, two sets of double stage stirling coolers (2STs) are used to cool the telescope shield. In this design, nominal operation of FPIs can be kept when one mechanical cooler is in failure. In this paper, current baseline configuration of the mechanical cooler system and current status of mechanical coolers developments which need to satisfy the specific requirements of SPICA cryogenic system are presented.

The ESA/JAXA SPICA mission is a candidate for the ESA Cosmic Vision Medium Class M5 opportunity. Since 2019 an Airbus Defence and Space team has been performing a trade-off study (on behalf of ESA) to establish a baseline telescope optical configuration and design, which can meet the mission scientific performance requirements. This paper describes the telescope baseline design selected, with first estimates of the expected optical performance. The optical design wavelength is 20 microns for an operating temperature of 8 K covering a total bandwidth of 12 to 420 microns over a 30 arc minutes field of view, with a total required collecting area of at least 4.0 m2;. The fundamental mission science driver is to achieve a sky background (astrophysical sources) limited performance. The telescope is designed to illuminate three instruments namely; SMI (JAXA - Japan), SAFARI (SRON - Netherlands) and B-BOP (CEA - France).

We report on the torus constraints of the Compton-thick AGN with double-peaked optical narrow line region (NLR) emission lines, ANEPD-CXO245, at z=0.449 in the AKARI NEP Deep Field. The unique infrared data on this field, including those from the nine-band photometry over 2-24 $\mu$m with the AKARI Infrared Camera (IRC), and the X-ray spectrum from Chandra allow us to constrain torus parameters such as the torus optical depth, X-ray absorbing column, torus angular width ($\sigma$) and viewing angle ($i$). We analyze the X-ray spectrum as well as the UV-optical-infrared spectral energy distribution (UOI-SED) with clumpy torus models in X-ray (XCLUMPY; Tanimoto et al. 2019) and infrared (CLUMPY; Nenkova et al. 2008) respectively. From our current data, the constraints on $\sigma$--$i$ from both X-rays and UOI show that the line of sight crosses the torus as expected for a type 2 AGN. We obtain a small X-ray scattering fraction (<0.1%), which suggests narrow torus openings, giving preference to the bi-polar outflow picture of the double-peaked profile. Comparing the optical depth of the torus from the UOI-SED and the absorbing column density $N_{\rm H}$ from the X-ray spectrum, we find that the gas-to-dust ratio is $\gtrsim 4$ times larger than the Galactic value.

Interplanetary dust (IPD) is thought to be recently supplied from asteroids and comets. Grain properties of the IPD can give us the information about the environment in the proto-solar system, and can be traced from the shapes of silicate features around 10 $\mu$m seen in the zodiacal emission spectra. We analyzed mid-IR slit-spectroscopic data of the zodiacal emission in various sky directions obtained with the Infrared Camera on board AKARI satellite. After we subtracted the contamination due to instrumental artifacts, we have successfully obtained high S/N spectra and have determined detailed shapes of excess emission features in the 9 -- 12 $\mu$m range in all the sky directions. According to a comparison between the feature shapes averaged over all directions and the absorption coefficients of candidate minerals, the IPD was found to typically include small silicate crystals, especially enstatite grains. We also found the variations in the feature shapes and the related grain properties among the different sky directions. From investigations of the correlation between feature shapes and the brightness contributions from dust bands, the IPD in dust bands seems to have the size frequency distribution biased toward large grains and show the indication of hydrated minerals. The spectra at higher ecliptic latitude showed a stronger excess, which indicates an increase in the fraction of small grains included in the line of sight at higher ecliptic latitudes. If we focus on the dependence of detailed feature shapes on ecliptic latitudes, the IPD at higher latitudes was found to have a lower olivine/pyroxene ratio for small amorphous grains. The variation of the mineral composition of the IPD in different sky directions may imply different properties of the IPD from different types of parent bodies, because the spatial distribution of the IPD depends on the type of the parent body.

The aim of this work is to create a new catalog of reliable active galactic nucleus (AGN) candidates selected from the AKARI NEP-Deep field. Selection of the AGN candidates was done by applying a fuzzy support vector machine algorithm, which allows the incorporation of measurement uncertainties into the classification process. The training dataset was based on the spectroscopic data available for selected objects in the NEP-Deep and NEP-Wide fields. The generalization sample was based on the AKARI NEP-Deep field data, including objects without optical counterparts and making use of the infrared information only. A high quality catalog of 275 previously unclassified AGN candidates was prepared.

We investigate the connection between active galactic nucleus (AGN) and star formation activities of AGN host galaxies by studying the 3.3 mu m polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission feature of 79 type 1 AGNs using the AKARI space telescope. Utilizing the slitless spectroscopic capability of the AKARI Infrared Camera, we obtained the spectra in the wavelength range of 2-5 mu m from extended regions of the sample galaxies in order to measure star formation activity from the entire host galaxies. We detected the 3.3 mu m PAH emission feature from 18 sample galaxies and measured the luminosities of the feature (L-PAH3.3). We found that L-PAH3.3 is significantly correlated with AGN luminosities (L-AGN), such as 5100 angstrom monochromatic luminosity, and X-ray luminosity regardless of host galaxy morphology and radio-loudness. The correlation between L-PAH3.3 and L-AGN follows L-PAH3.3 proportional to L-AGN(0.9). Therefore we suggest that host galaxies with stronger AGN activities have stronger star formation activities. We also found that the ratios between L-PAH3.3 and the bolometric infrared luminosity (L-IR) of our sample galaxies are lower than for non-AGN galaxies due to increased L-IR. We suggest that this can be attributed to the contribution of AGN to L-IR.

Recent simulations predict that the presence of stellar bulge suppress the efficiency of star formation in early-type galaxies, and this `morphological quenching' scenario is supported by many observations. In this study, we discuss the net effect of galaxy morphologies on the star formation efficiency (SFE) during the phase of galaxy transition, on the basis of our CO($J=1-0$) observations of 28 local `green-valley' galaxies with the Nobeyama 45m Radio Telescope. We observed 13 `disk-dominated' and 15 `bulge-dominated' green-valley galaxies at fixed stellar mass ($M_*$) and star formation rate (SFR), supplemented by 1 disk- and 6 bulge-dominated galaxies satisfying the same criteria from the xCOLD~GASS survey. By using a total of 35 green-valley galaxies, we reveal that the distributions of molecular gas mass, molecular gas fraction, and SFE of green-valley galaxies do not change with their morphologies, suggesting little impact of galaxy morphologies on their SFE, and interestingly this result is also valid for normal star-forming galaxies on the SF main-sequence selected from the xCOLD~GASS galaxies. On the other hand, we find that $\sim$20 % of bulge-dominated green-valley galaxies do not show significant CO emission line, showing high SFEs for their M$_*$ and SFR. These molecular gas deficient sources identified only in the bulge-dominated green-valley galaxies may represent an important population during the quenching phase under the influence of stellar bulge, but our results suggest that the presence of stellar bulge does not decrease the efficiency of on-going star formation, in contrast to the prediction of the morphological quenching scenario.

The aim of this work is to create a new catalog of reliable AGN candidates selected from the AKARI NEP-Deep field. Selection of the AGN candidates was done by applying a fuzzy SVM algorithm, which allows to incorporate measurement uncertainties into the classification process. The training dataset was based on the spectroscopic data available for selected objects in the NEP-Deep and NEP-Wide fields. The generalization sample was based on the AKARI NEP-Deep field data including objects without optical counterparts and making use of the infrared information only. A high quality catalog of previously unclassified 275 AGN candidates was prepared.

Evolutionary properties of infrared (IR) luminous galaxies are important keys to understand dust-obscured star formation history and galaxy evolution. Based on the near- to mid-IR imaging with 9 continuous filters of AKARI space telescope, we present the characteristics of dusty star-forming (SF) galalxies showing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) features observed by the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) wide field survey of AKARI and Herschel. All the sample galaxies from the AKARI/NEP-Wide data are selected based both on the Herschel/SPIRE 250 {\mu}m detection and optical spectroscopic redshift data. The physical modelling of spectral energy distribution (SED) using all available data points from u to sub-mm 500 {\mu}m band, including WISE and PACS data where available, takes unique advantages of the continuous near to mid-IR coverage, reliable constraint on far-IR peak, spectroscopically determined accurate redshifts, as well as energy balance principle by MAGPHYS. This enables us to derive physically meaningful and accurate total infrared luminosity and 8 {\mu}m (or PAH) luminosity consistently. Our sample galaxies are in the redshift range z <1, and majority of them appear to be normal SF/spiral populations showing PAH features near the 8 {\mu}m. These SF galaxies showing PAHs in the mid-IR include various types from quiescent to starbursts. Some of our sample show shortage of 8 {\mu}m luminosity compared to the total IR luminosity and this PAH deficit gets severe in more luminous IR galaxies, suggesting PAH molecules in these galaxies destroyed by strong radiation field from SF region or a large amount of cold dust in ISM. The specific SFR of our sample shows mass dependent time evolution which is consistent with downsizing evolutionary pattern.

Much of the star formation is obscured by dust. For the complete understanding of the cosmic star formation history (CSFH), infrared (IR) census is indispensable. AKARI carried out deep mid-infrared observations using its continuous 9-band filters in the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) field (5.4 deg$^2$). This took significant amount of satellite's lifetime, $\sim$10\% of the entire pointed observations. By combining archival Spitzer (5 bands) and WISE (4 bands) mid-IR photometry, we have, in total, 18 band mid-IR photometry, which is the most comprehensive photometric coverage in mid-IR for thousands of galaxies. However previously, we only had shallow optical imaging ($\sim$25.9ABmag) in a small area of 1.0 deg$^2$. As a result, there remained thousands of AKARI's infrared sources undetected in optical. Using the new Hyper Suprime-Cam on Subaru telescope, we obtained deep enough optical images of the entire AKARI NEP field in 5 broad bands ($g\sim$27.5mag). These provided photometric redshift, and thereby IR luminosity for the previously undetected faint AKARI IR sources. Combined with the accurate mid-IR luminosity measurement, we constructed mid-IR LFs, and thereby performed a census of dust-obscured CSFH in the entire AKARI NEP field. We have measured restframe 8$\mu$m, 12$\mu$m luminosity functions (LFs), and estimated total infrared LFs at 0.35$<$z$<$2.2. Our results are consistent with our previous work, but with much reduced statistical errors thanks to the large area coverage of the new data. We have possibly witnessed the turnover of CSFH at $z\sim$2.

Revealing what fraction of galaxies harbor AGN is central in understanding black hole accretion history of the Universe. However, optical and soft X-ray surveys miss the most highly obscured AGNs. Infrared (IR), instead, is more robust against absorption. Previous IR photometric surveys, however, only had 4 or 5 filters in mid-IR. Our AKARI North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) wide field sample has 18 filters in mid-IR (9 from AKARI, 4 from WISE, and 5 from Spitzer), for the first time, allowing a sophisticated mid-IR SED fitting diagnosis for a statistical number of sources (89178 over 5.4 deg$^2$). By using a SED fitting technique, we investigate the evolution of AGN fraction as a function of redshift and IR (8-1000 $\mu$m) luminosity in an extinction-free way. We found that the AGN fraction (F$_{\rm AGN}$) shows no sign of strong redshift evolution. Instead, F$_{\rm AGN}$ increases with increasing IR luminosity in all redshifts bins ($0<z<2$).

Observing high resolution optical to infrared spectra is crucial to understanding how energy is generated in galaxies. We present follow-up optical Keck-II/DEIMOS and infrared Keck-I/MOSFIRE spectra of ∼200 galaxies in the AKARI/North Ecliptic Pole Deep survey region at intermediate redshift. From rest-frame optical emission lines, we classify most of our objects as star-forming (53%), with the MIR selection favoring relatively massive galaxies (median log M/M ∼ 10.3). In addition, we combine our spectroscopic redshifts with UV to FIR photometry as inputs in order to model SEDs with CIGALE, and we measure the PAH 7.7 μm luminosity as an SFR indicator.

The AKARI Wide North Ecliptic field is one of the most important cosmological fields because it lies in the continuous viewing zones for many space telescopes, e.g., Herschel, HST, and JWST, and it is also a natural high-visibility field from the L2 halo orbit. The field will be also the location of the deep survey for the Euclid mission. Finally, AKARI has made deep mid-IR observations using its nine continuous band filters in the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) field. We analyzed GALEX and Herschel observations in the NEP field to build catalogs in seven bands: GALEX far UV and near UV, Herschel PACS 100 μm and 250 μm, and SPIRE 250 μm, 350 μm, and 500 μm with quality checks. The SPIRE catalogs are used to identify 61 (6 in a main list and 55 in a supplementary list) candidate lensed galaxies through red 350 μm to 500 μm colors. For the brightest of these candidates with 500 μm flux densities &gt 100 mJy, follow-up observations in millimeter wavelengths have been carried out with the NOEMA interferometer. The high quality of these observations has allowed us to study and compare their morphology beyond that possible using Herschel data alone. We find that the majority of them appear as multiple objects. The redshift distribution of the sources in the main list is found to be in the range 1.5 &lt z &lt 2.3. Their IR luminosities confirm that these sources are very likely strongly lensed galaxies.

We present AKARI 2.5-5 μm spectra of 145 local luminous infrared galaxies (LIRG; L&lt;SUB&gt;IR&lt;/SUB&gt; ≥ 10&lt;SUP&gt;11&lt;/SUP&gt; L&lt;SUB&gt;☉&lt;/SUB&gt;) in the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey (GOALS). In all of the spectra, we measure the line fluxes and equivalent widths (EQWs) of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) at 3.3 μm and the hydrogen recombination line Brα at 4.05 μm, with apertures matched to the slit sizes of the Spitzer low-resolution spectrograph and with an aperture covering ̃95% of the total flux in the AKARI two-dimensional (2D) spectra. The star formation rates (SFRs) derived from the Brα emission measured in the latter aperture agree well with SFRs estimated from L&lt;SUB&gt;IR&lt;/SUB&gt;, when the dust extinction correction is adopted based on the 9.7 μm silicate absorption feature. Together with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) 5.2-38 μm spectra, we are able to compare the emission of the PAH features detected at 3.3 μm and 6.2 μm. These are the two most commonly used near/mid-infrared indicators of starburst or active galactic nucleus (AGN) dominated galaxies. We find that the 3.3 μm and 6.2 μm PAH EQWs do not follow a linear correlation and at least a third of the galaxies classified as AGN-dominated sources using the 3.3 μm feature are classified as starbursts based on the 6.2 μm feature. These galaxies have a bluer continuum slope than galaxies that are indicated to be starburst-dominated by both PAH features. The bluer continuum emission suggests that their continuum is dominated by stellar emission rather than hot dust. We also find that the median Spitzer/IRS spectra of these sources are remarkably similar to the pure starburst-dominated sources indicated by high PAH EQWs in both 3.3 μm and 6.2 μm. Based on these results, we propose a revised starburst/AGN diagnostic diagram using 2-5 μm data: the 3.3 μm PAH EQW and the continuum color, F&lt;SUB&gt;ν&lt;/SUB&gt;(4.3 μm)/F&lt;SUB&gt;ν&lt;/SUB&gt;(2.8 μm). We use the AKARI and Spitzer spectra to examine the performance of our new starburst/AGN diagnostics and to estimate 3.3 μm PAH fluxes using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) photometric bands in the redshift range 0 &amp;lt; z &amp;lt; 5. Of the known PAH features and mid-infrared high ionization emission lines used as starburst/AGN indicators, only the 3.3 μm PAH feature is observable with JWST at z &amp;gt; 3.5, because the rest of the features at longer wavelengths fall outside the JWST wavelength coverage. Full Table 1 and data associated to Fig. 9 are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to &lt;A href=&quot;http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr&quot;&gt;http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr&lt;/A&gt; (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via &lt;A href=&quot;http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/vizbin/qcat?J/A+A/617/A130&quot;&gt;http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/617/A130&lt;/A&gt;...

<italic>Context.</italic> Deep mid-infrared (MIR) surveys have revealed numerous strongly star-forming galaxies at redshift <italic>z</italic> ≲ 2. Their MIR fluxes are produced by a combination of continuum and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission features. The PAH features can dominate the total MIR flux, but are difficult to measure without spectroscopy. <italic>Aims.</italic> We aim to study star-forming galaxies by using a blind spectroscopic survey at MIR wavelengths to understand evolution of their star formation rate (SFR) and specific SFR (SFR per stellar mass) up to <italic>z</italic> ≃ 0.5, by paying particular attention to their PAH properties. <italic>Methods.</italic> We conducted a low-resolution (<italic>R</italic> ≃ 50) slitless spectroscopic survey at 5–13 <italic>μ</italic>m of 9 <italic>μ</italic>m flux-selected sources (&gt;0.3 mJy) around the north ecliptic pole with the infrared camera (IRC) onboard AKARI. After removing 11 AGN candidates by using the IRC photometry, we identify 48 PAH galaxies with PAH 6.2, 7.7, and 8.6 <italic>μ</italic>m features at <italic>z</italic> &lt; 0.5. The rest-frame optical–MIR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) based on CFHT and IRC imaging covering 0.37–18 <italic>μ</italic>m were produced, and analysed in conjunction with the PAH spectroscopy. We defined the PAH enhancement by using the luminosity ratio of the 7.7 <italic>μ</italic>m PAH feature over the 3.5 <italic>μ</italic>m stellar component of the SEDs. <italic>Results.</italic> The rest-frame SEDs of all PAH galaxies have a universal shape with stellar and 7.7 <italic>μ</italic>m bumps, except that the PAH enhancement significantly varies as a function of the PAH luminosities. We identify a PAH-enhanced population at <italic>z</italic> ≳ 0.35, whose SEDs and luminosities are typical of luminous infrared galaxies. They show particularly larger PAH enhancement at high luminosity, implying that they are vigorous star-forming galaxies with elevated specific SFR. Our composite starburst model that combines a very young and optically very thick starburst with a very old population can successfully reproduce most of their SED characteristics, although we cannot confirm this optically think component from our spectral analysis.

A detailed analysis of Herschel-PACS observations at the North Ecliptic Pole is presented. High quality maps, covering an area of 0.44 square degrees, are produced and then used to derive potential candidate source lists. A rigorous quality control pipeline has been used to create final legacy catalogues in the PACS Green 100 micron and Red 160 micron bands, containing 1384 and 630 sources respectively. These catalogues reach to more than twice the depth of the current archival Herschel/PACS Point Source Catalogue, detecting 400 and 270 more sources in the short and long wavelength bands respectively. Galaxy source counts are constructed that extend down to flux densities of 6mJy and 19mJy (50% completeness) in the Green 100 micron and Red 160 micron bands respectively. These source counts are consistent with previously published PACS number counts in other fields across the sky. The source counts are then compared with a galaxy evolution model identifying a population of luminous infrared galaxies as responsible for the bulk of the galaxy evolution over the flux range (5-100mJy) spanned by the observed counts, contributing approximate fractions of 50% and 60% to the cosmic infrared background (CIRB) at 100 microns and 160 microns respectively.

We report near-infrared (IR) observations of high Galactic latitude clouds to investigate diffuse Galactic light (DGL), which is starlight scattered by interstellar dust grains. The observations were performed at 1.1 and 1.6 mu m with a wide-field camera instrument, the Multi-purpose Infra-Red Imaging System (MIRIS) onboard the Korean satellite STSAT-3. The DGL brightness is measured by correlating the near-IR images with a far-IR 100 mu m map of interstellar dust thermal emission. The wide-field observation of DGL provides the most accurate DGL measurement achieved to-date. We also find a linear correlation between optical and near-IR DGL in the MBM32 field. To study interstellar dust properties in MBM32, we adopt recent dust models with and without mu m-sized very large grains and predict the DGL spectra, taking into account the reddening effect of the interstellar radiation field. The result shows that the observed color of the near-IR DGL is closer to the model spectra without very large grains. This may imply that dust growth in the observed MBM32 field is not active owing to the low density of its interstellar medium.

We carry out a study of Sub-Millimeter Galaxies (SMGs) in the AKARI NEP-Deep field using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) SCUBA-2 850 µm source catalog, released as part of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey (S2CLS) program. The SCUBA-2 850 µm map has a root mean square (rms) noise of 1.2 mJy beam−1 and covers an area of 0.60 degree2. We find four SMGs which have counterparts to Herschel sources with spectroscopic redshifts in the literature. In addition, three dust obscured galaxies (DOGs) detected in Herschel bands are selected as a comparison sample. We derive IR luminosities of SMGs using the CIGALE code, which are similar to those of high redshift SMGs from previous studies. The contribution of AGN to the total IR luminosity in SMGs (2%–11%) is smaller than the lower limit for the one in DOGs (19%–35%), which is consistent with the expectation from the evolutionary scenario of massive galaxies. We search for SMGs in overdense regions as protocluster candidates and investigate four regions, including candidates around three DOGs. Finally, we argue that follow-up spectroscopic observation for the NEP-Deep field will provide crucial information to understand the role of SMGs in the evolution of massive galaxies.

We present a photometric catalog for Spitzer Space Telescope warm mission observations of the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP centered at R.A. = 18h00m00s, decl. = 66d33m38.552). The observations are conducted with IRAC in the 3.6 and 4.5 μm bands over an area of 7.04 deg2, reaching 1σ depths of 1.29 μJy and 0.79 μJy in the 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm bands, respectively. The photometric catalog contains 380,858 sources with 3.6 and 4.5 μm band photometry over the full-depth NEP mosaic. Point-source completeness simulations show that the catalog is 80% complete down to 19.7 AB. The accompanying catalog can be used for constraining the physical properties of extragalactic objects, studying the AGN population, measuring the infrared colors of stellar objects, and studying the extragalactic infrared background light.

<title>Abstract</title>Measurements in the infrared wavelength domain allow direct assessment of the physical state and energy balance of cool matter in space, enabling the detailed study of the processes that govern the formation and evolution of stars and planetary systems in galaxies over cosmic time. Previous infrared missions revealed a great deal about the obscured Universe, but were hampered by limited sensitivity. SPICA takes the next step in infrared observational capability by combining a large 2.5-meter diameter telescope, cooled to below 8 K, with instruments employing ultra-sensitive detectors. A combination of passive cooling and mechanical coolers will be used to cool both the telescope and the instruments. With mechanical coolers the mission lifetime is not limited by the supply of cryogen. With the combination of low telescope background and instruments with state-of-the-art detectors SPICA provides a huge advance on the capabilities of previous missions. SPICA instruments offer spectral resolving power ranging from <italic>R</italic> ~50 through 11 000 in the 17–230 μm domain and <italic>R</italic> ~28.000 spectroscopy between 12 and 18 μm. SPICA will provide efficient 30–37 μm broad band mapping, and small field spectroscopic and polarimetric imaging at 100, 200 and 350 μm. SPICA will provide infrared spectroscopy with an unprecedented sensitivity of ~5 × 10⁻²⁰ W m⁻² (5σ/1 h)—over two orders of magnitude improvement over what earlier missions. This exceptional performance leap, will open entirely new domains in infrared astronomy; galaxy evolution and metal production over cosmic time, dust formation and evolution from very early epochs onwards, the formation history of planetary systems.

We present an overview of the thermal and mechanical design of the Payload Module (PLM) of the next-generation infrared astronomy mission Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA). The primary design goal of PLM is to cool the whole science assembly including a 2.5 m telescope and focal-plane instruments below 8 K. SPICA is thereby expected to have very low background conditions so that it can achieve unprecedented sensitivity in the mid- and far-infrared. PLM also provides the instruments with the 4.8 K and 1.8 K stages to cool their detectors. The SPICA cryogenic system combines passive, effective radiative cooling by multiple thermal shields and active cooling by a series of mechanical cryocoolers. The mechanical cryocoolers are required to provide 40 mW cooling power at 4.8 K and 10 mW at 1.8 K at End-of-Life (EoL). End-to-end performance of the SPICA cryocooler-chain from 300 K to 50 mK was demonstrated under the framework of the ESA CryoChain Core Technology Program (CC-CTP). In this paper, we focus on the recent progress of the thermal and mechanical design of SPICA PLM which is based on the SPICA mission proposal to ESA(1).*

Understanding infrared (IR) luminosity is fundamental to understanding the cosmic star formation history and AGN evolution. Japanese infrared satellite, AKARI, provided unique data sets to probe this both at low and high redshift; the AKARI all sky survey in 6 bands (9-160 $\mu$m), and the AKARI NEP survey in 9 bands (2-24$\mu$m). The AKARI performed all sky survey in 6 IR bands (9, 18, 65, 90, 140, and 160 $\mu$m) with 3-10 times better sensitivity than IRAS, covering the crucial far-IR wavelengths across the peak of the dust emission. Combined with a better spatial resolution, we measure the total infrared luminosity ($L_{TIR}$) of individual galaxies, and thus, the total infrared luminosity density of the local Universe much more precisely than previous work. In the AKARI NEP wide field, AKARI has obtained deep images in the mid-infrared (IR), covering 5.4 deg$^2$. However, our previous work was limited to the central area of 0.25 deg$^2$ due to the lack of deep optical coverage. To rectify the situation, we used the newly advent Subaru telescope's Hyper Suprime-Cam to obtain deep optical images over the entire 5.4 deg$^2$ of the AKARI NEP wide field. With this deep and wide optical data, we, for the first time, can use the entire AKARI NEP wide data to construct restframe 8$\mu$m, 12$\mu$m, and total infrared (TIR) luminosity functions (LFs) at 0.15$<z<$2.2. A continuous 9-band filter coverage in the mid-IR wavelength (2.4, 3.2, 4.1, 7, 9, 11, 15, 18, and 24$\mu$m) by the AKARI satellite allowed us to estimate restframe 8$\mu$m and 12$\mu$m luminosities without using a large extrapolation based on a SED fit, which was the largest uncertainty in previous work. By combining these two results, we reveal dust-hidden cosmic star formation history and AGN evolution from z=0 to z=2.2, all probed by the AKARI satellite.

The AKARI North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) survey consists of two survey projects: NEP-Deep (0.5 sq.deg) and NEP-Wide (5.4 sq.deg), providing with tens of thousands of galaxies. A continuous filter coverage in the mid-infrared wavelengths (7, 9, 11, 15, 18 and 24 $\mu$m) is unique to diagnose the contributions from dusty star-formation activity and AGNs. Here we present current status focused on the newly obtained optical images and near-future prospects with a new X-ray telescope. Hyper Suprime-Cam on Subaru telescope is a gigantic optical camera with huge Field of View (FoV). Thanks to the wide FoV, we successfully obtained deep optical images at g, r, i, z and Y-bands covering most of the NEP-Wide field. Using the deep optical images, we identified over 5000 optical counterparts of the mid-IR sources, presumably deeply obscured galaxies in NEP-Wide field. We also investigated properties of these infrared sources with SED-fitting. eROSITA, to be launched early 2018, is a new all-sky X-ray survey telescope, and expected to conduct ultra deep 2-10 keV imaging toward NEP. We expect unprecedentedly numerous Compton-thick AGN candidates when combined with the multi-wavelength data in NEP region.

In this research, we provide a new, efficient method to select infrared (IR) active galatic nucleus (AGN). In the past, AGN selection in IR had been established by many studies using color-color diagrams. However, those methods have a problem in common that the number of bands is limited. The AKARI North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) survey was carried out by the AKARI Infrared Camera (IRC), which has 9 filters in mid-IR with a continuous wavelength coverage from 2 to 24$\mu$m$^{-1}$. Based on the intrinsic different mid-IR features of AGN and star-forming galaxies (SFGs), we performed SED fitting to separate these two populations by the best-fitting model. In the X-ray AGN sample, our method by SED fitting selects 50$\%$ AGNs, while the previous method by colour criteria recovers only 30$\%$ of them, which is a significant improvement. Furthermore, in the whole NEP deep sample, SED fitting selects two times more AGNs than the color selection. This may imply that the black hole accretion history could be more stronger than people expected before.

Mid-infrared properties are reported of the west hot spot of the radio galaxy Pictor A with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The mid-infrared counterpart to the hot spot, WISE J051926.26-454554.1, is listed in the AllWISE source catalog. The source was detected in all the four WISE photometric bands. A comparison between the WISE and radio images reinforces the physical association of the \wise\ source to the hot spot. The WISE flux density of the source was carefully evaluated. A close investigation of the multi-wavelength synchrotron spectral energy distribution from the object reveals a mid-infrared excess at the wavelength of $\lambda=22$ $\mu$m with a statistical significance of $4.8 \sigma$ over the simple power-law extrapolation from the synchrotron radio spectrum. The excess is reinforced by single and double cutoff power-law modeling of the radio-to-optical spectral energy distribution. The synchrotron cutoff frequency of the main and excess components was evaluated as $7.1 \times 10^{14}$ Hz and $5.5 \times 10^{13}$ Hz, respectively. From the cutoff frequency, the magnetic field of the emission region was constrained as a function of the region size. In order to interpret the excess component, an electron population different from the main one dominating the observed radio spectrum is necessary. The excess emission is proposed to originate in a sub structure within the hot spot, in which the magnetic field is by a factor of a few stronger than that in the minimum energy condition. The relation of the mid-infrared excess to the X-ray emission is briefly discussed.

This paper demonstrates a cryogenic deformable mirror (DM) with 1,020 actuators based on micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Cryogenic space-borne infrared telescopes can experience a wavefront error due to a figure error of their mirror surface, which makes the imaging performance worse. For on-orbit wavefront correction as one solution, we developed a MEMS-processed electro-static DM with a special surrounding structure for use under the cryogenic temperature. We conducted a laboratory demonstration of its operation in three cooling cycles between 5 K and 295 K. Using a laser interferometer, we detected the deformation corresponding to the applied voltages under the cryogenic temperature for the first time. The relationship between voltages and displacements was qualitatively expressed by the quadratic function, which is assumed based on the principle of electro-static DMs. We also found that it had a high operating repeatability of a few nm RMS and no significant hysteresis. Using the measured values of repeatability, we simulated the improvement of PSF by wavefront correction with our DM. These results show that our developed DM is effective in improving imaging performance and PSF contrast of space-borne infrared telescopes.

We present the molecular gas mass fraction ($f_\mathrm{H_2}$) and star-formation efficiency (SFE) of local galaxies on the basis of our new CO($J=1-0$) observations with the Nobeyama 45m radio telescope, combined with the COLDGASS galaxy catalog, as a function of galaxy environment defined as the local number density of galaxies measured with SDSS DR7 spectroscopic data. Our sample covers a wide range in the stellar mass and SFR, and covers wide environmental range over two orders of magnitude. This allows us to conduct the first, systematic study of environmental dependence of molecular gas properties in galaxies from the lowest- to the highest-density environments in the local universe. We confirm that both $f_\mathrm{H_2}$ and SFE have strong positive correlations with the SFR offset from the star-forming main sequence ($\Delta$MS), and most importantly, we find that these correlations are universal across all environments. Our result demonstrates that star-formation activity within individual galaxies is primarily controlled by their molecular gas content, regardless of their global environment. Therefore, we claim that one always needs to be careful about the $\Delta$MS distribution of the sample when investigating the environmental effects on the H$_2$ gas content in galaxies.