We report a search for fluctuations of the sky brightness toward the North Ecliptic Pole with AKARI, at 2.4, 3.2, and 4.1 μm . The stacked images with a diameter of 10 arcminutes of the AKARI-Monitor Field show a spatial structure on the scale of a few hundred arcseconds. A power spectrum analysis shows that there is a significant excess fluctuation at angular scales larger than 100 arcseconds that cannot be explained by zodiacal light, diffuse Galactic light, shot noise of faint galaxies, or clustering of low-redshift galaxies. These findings indicate that the detected fluctuation could be attributed to the first stars of the universe, i.e., Population III stars.

We present the first measurement of the angular two-point correlation function for AKARI 90μm point sources, detected outside of the Milky Way plane and selected as candidates for extragalactic sources. This is the first measurement of the large-scale angular clustering of galaxies selected in the far-infrared after IRAS. We find a positive clustering signal in both hemispheres extending up to ~ 40 degrees, without any significant fluctuations at larger scales. The observed correlation function is well fitted by a power law function. However, southern galaxies seem to be more strongly clustered than northern ones and the difference is statistically significant. The reason for this difference - technical or physical - is still to be found.

Using extensive mid-IR datasets from AKARI, i.e. 9-band photometry covering the wavelength range from 2μm to 24μm and the unbiased spectroscopic survey for sources with Sν(9μm)>0.3 mJy, we study starburst galaxies specifically at the redshift of z ~ 0.5, whose mid-IR spectra are clearly dominated by the PAH emission features. PAH-selected galaxies, selected with extremely red mid-IR colour due to PAHs, have high rest-frame PAH-to-stellar luminosity ratios, comparable to those in the most active regions in nearby starburst galaxies. Thus, they seem to have active starburst regions spreading over the whole body. Furthermore, some of PAH-selected galaxies are found to have peculiar rest-frame 11-to- 8μm flux ratios, which is systematically smaller than nearby starburst/AGN spectral templates. This may indicate a systematic difference in the physical condition of ISM between nearby and distant starburst galaxies.

We investigate the relation between star formation activity and PAH 3.3 μm emission. Our targets are mid-infrared-excess galaxies selected from the AKARI all-sky survey point source catalog. We performed AKARI near-infrared spectroscopy for them. As a result, we obtained 2.5 − 5 μm spectra of 79 galaxies, and selected 35 star-forming galaxies out of them. Comparing the PAH 3.3 μm luminosities with the infrared luminosities, we find a linear correlation between them. However, by adding the results from literatures for luminous infrared galaxies and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies that are more luminous than our sample, the ratio of the PAH to the infrared luminosity is found to decrease towards the luminous end.

We provide a new physical insight on the hot molecular clouds near the nucleus of the heavily obscured AGN IRAS 01250+2832, based on the results of near-infrared high-resolution spectroscopy of gaseous CO ro-vibrational absorption lines with Subaru/IRCS. The detected CO absorption lines up to highly excited rotational levels reveal that hot dense molecular clouds exist around the AGN under the peculiar physical conditions.

We combine data from two all-sky surveys, the Swift/Burst Alert Telescope 22 Month Source Catalog and the AKARI Point Source Catalogue, in order to study the connection between the hard X-ray (> 10 keV) and infrared (IR) properties of local active galactic nuclei (AGN). We find two photometric diagnostics are useful for source classification: one is the X-ray luminosity vs. IR color diagram, in which type 1 radio-loud AGN are well isolated from other AGN. The second one uses the X-ray vs. IR color-color diagram as a redshift-independent indicator for identifying Compton-thick (CT) AGN. Importantly, CT AGN and starburst galaxies in composite systems can also be separated in this plane based upon their hard X-ray fluxes and dust temperatures. This diagram may be useful as a new indicator to classify objects in new surveys such as with WISE and NuSTAR.

Many observations have found evidence of the presence of a large number of heavily obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). However, the nature of this population is only poorly understood because heavy obscuration by dust prevents one from finding them at optical wavelengths. Mid-infrared AGN searches can overcome this obstacle by penetrating through dust and by detecting direct emission from the dust torus. Thus, we can identify most of the AGN population, including type-2 and buried AGNs. Using the AKARI mid-infrared all-sky survey, we performed an AGN search in the nearby universe. Utilizing the 2MASS photometry, we selected mid-infrared-excess sources and carried out near-infrared spectroscopic observations in the AKARI Phase 3. During these follow-up observations, we have found three galaxies that show strong near-infrared red continuum from hot dust with a temperature of about 500 K, but do not show any AGN features in other wavelengths. The most suitable explanation of near-infrared continuum is the presence of central AGNs. Therefore, we conclude that they are AGNs obscured by dust. We performed X-ray observations of the two galaxies with SUZAKU. No detections in the 0.4-10 keV suggest that the column density may be much higher than NH=1023.5cm−2 . Comparing the masses of the host galaxies with those of the SDSS AGNs, we find that the host galaxies of the dusty AGNs discovered with AKARI are less massive populations than those of optically selected AGNs.

We present the properties of dust and the near-infrared spectral features in nearby early-type galaxies. The properties of dust are obtained from the AKARI far-infrared all-sky survey diffuse map. The AKARI/IRC is used for the near-infrared spectra. We improve spectral data with the new dark subtraction method on the basis of the knowledge acquired in our laboratory experiments of the engineering-model detector for the IRC. We have succeeded in fitting the continuum by a power-law function and detecting CO and SiO absorption features in early-type galaxy spectra. Comparing the properties of dust and near-infrared spectral features, we find that the power-law slope depends on dust temperature, but not on the dust mass, which suggests that low-luminosity AGNs may contribute to the changes in the power-law slope and dust temperature.

With AKARI, we carried out near-infrared spectroscopy of the nearby barred spiral galaxy, NGC 1097, categorized as Seyfert 1 with a circumnuclear starburst ring. Our observations mapped the galactic center region. As a result, we obtain the spatial distributions of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon 3.3μm and the aliphatic hydrocarbon 3.4−3.6 μm emission. The former is detected from all the observed regions and the latter is enhanced near the bar connecting the ring with the nucleus. In addition, we detect absorption features due to H2O ice and CO/SiO at the ring and the galactic center, while we detect the hydrogen recombination line Brα only from the ring. Hence the observed spectra change dramatically within the central 1 kpc region.

The absorption features due to interstellar ices, especially H2O and CO2 ices, provide us with crucial information on present and past interstellar environments, and thus the evolutionary histories of galaxies. Before AKARI, however, few detections of ices were reported for nearby galaxies. The AKARI's unique capability of near-infrared spectroscopy with high sensitivity enables us to systematically study ices in nearby galaxies. Thus we have explored many near-infrared spectra ( 2.5−5μm ) of the 211 pointed observations, searching for the absorption features of ices. As a result, out of 122 nearby galaxies, we have significantly detected H2O ice from 36 galaxies and CO2 ice from 9 galaxies. It is notable that the ices are detected not only in late-type galaxies but also in early-type galaxies. We find that CO2 ice is more compactly distributed near the galactic center than H2O ice. Finally, we suggest that the gas density of a molecular cloud and UV radiation may be important factors to determine the abundance of ices.

Among the AKARI all-sky survey data, the 9 μm diffuse map is crucial to study the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission features on large spatial scales, while the 18 μm map is useful to trace hot dust emission. To utilize these advantages, we have improved the AKARI mid-infrared (MIR) all-sky survey diffuse maps. For example, we have established special methods to remove the effects of the ionizing radiation in the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) and of the scattered light from the moon. Using improved diffuse map data, we study the properties of PAHs and dust in the Galactic center region associated with high-energy phenomena.

We have carried out a survey of T Tauri stars (TTSs) in a 1,800-square-degrees region toward the Taurus-Auriga star forming region with the AKARI Mid-Infrared All-Sky Survey. By combination of AKARI, 2MASS, and UCAC surveys, we created new criteria to chose TTS candidates. We also considered Asymptotic Giant Branch stars and galaxies, which have similar infrared colors, to separate TTSs from these sources. On the basis of our criteria, we find 27 new TTS candidates. To verify our criteria, we performed follow-up observations for them and confirmed that 23 are TTSs.

Using the AKARI mid-infrared all-sky survey catalogue, we are searching for debris disks which are important objects as an observational clue to on-going planetary system formation. Debris disk candidates are selected through a significant excess of the measured flux over the predicted flux for the stellar photospheric emission at 18 μm . The fluxes were originally estimated based on the near-infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of central stars constructed from the 2MASS J-, H-, and Ks-band fluxes. However, we found that in many cases the 2MASS photometry has large errors due to saturation in the central part of a star image. Therefore we performed follow-up observations with the IRSF 1.4m near-infrared telescope in South Africa to obtain accurate fluxes in the J-, H-, and Ks-bands. As a result, we have succeeded in improving the SEDs of the central stars. This improvement of the SEDs allows us to make more reliable selection of the candidates.

An overview of the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) deep multi-wavelength survey covering from X-ray to radio wavelengths is presented. The main science objective of this multi-wavelength project is to unveil the star-formation and AGN activities obscured by dust in the violent epoch of the Universe (z=0.5-2), when the star formation and black-hole evolution activities were much stronger than the present. The NEP deep survey with AKARI/IRC consists of two survey projects: shallow wide (8.2 sq. deg, NEP-Wide) and the deep one (0.6 sq. deg, NEP-Deep). The NEP-Deep provides us with a 15 μm or 18 μm selected sample of several thousands of galaxies, the largest sample ever made at these wavelengths. A continuous filter coverage at mid-IR wavelengths (7, 9, 11, 15, 18, and 24 μ m ) is unique and vital to diagnose the contribution from starbursts and AGNs in the galaxies at the violent epoch. The recent updates of the ancillary data are also provided: optical/near-IR magnitudes (Subaru, CFHT), X-ray (Chandra), FUV/NUV (GALEX), radio (WSRT, GMRT), optical spectra (Keck/DEIMOS etc.), Subaru/FMOS, Herschel/SPIRE, and JCMT/SCUBA-2.

The interstellar dust grains are formed and supplied to interstellar space from asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars or supernova remnants, and become constituents of the star- and planet-formation processes that lead to the next generation of stars. Both a qualitative, and a compositional study of this cycle are essential to understanding the origin of the pre-solar grains, the missing sources of the interstellar material, and the chemical evolution of our Galaxy. The AKARI/MIR all-sky survey was performed with two mid-infrared photometric bands centered at 9 and 18 μ m . These data have advantages in detecting carbonaceous and silicate circumstellar dust of AGB stars, and the interstellar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons separately from large grains of amorphous silicate. By using the AKARI/MIR All-Sky point source catalogue, we surveyed C-rich and O-rich AGB stars in our Galaxy, which are the dominant suppliers of carbonaceous and silicate grains, respectively. The C-rich stars are uniformly distributed across the Galactic disk, whereas O-rich stars are concentrated toward the Galactic center, following the metallicity gradient of the interstellar medium, and are presumably affected by the environment of their birth place. We will compare the distributions of the dust suppliers with the distributions of the interstellar grains themselves by using the AKARI/MIR All-Sky diffuse maps. To enable discussions on the faint diffuse interstellar radiation, we are developing an accurate AKARI/MIR All-Sky diffuse map by correcting artifacts such as the ionising radiation effects, scattered light from the moon, and stray light from bright sources.