The cosmic evolution of luminous infrared galaxies: from IRAS to ISO, SCUBA and SIRTF Original Research Article

Deep surveys at mid-infrared through submillimeter wavelengths indicate that a substantial fraction of the total luminosity output from galaxies at high redshift (z>1) emerges at wavelengths 30–300 μm. In addition, much of the star formation and AGN activity associated with galaxy building at these epochs appears to reside in a class of luminous infrared galaxies (LIGs), often so heavily enshrouded in dust that they appear as “blank-fields” in deep optical/UV surveys. Here we present an update on the state of our current knowledge of the cosmic evolution of LIGs from z=0 to z∼4 based on the most recent data obtained from ongoing ground-based redshift surveys of sources detected in ISO and SCUBA deep-fields. A scenario for the origin and evolution of LIGs in the local Universe (z<0.3), based on results from multiwavelength observations of several large complete samples of luminous IRAS galaxies, is then discussed.