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

Abstract

We have carried out two extremely deep surveys with SPIRE, one of the two cameras on <i>Herschel<i/>, at 250 <i>μ<i/>m, close to the peak of the far-infrared background. We have used the results to investigate the evolution of the rest-frame 250-<i>μ<i/>m luminosity function out to <i>z<i/> = 2. We find evidence for strong evolution out to <i>z<i/> 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 <i>z<i/> 1.4 in spiral galaxies.