Clustering of the Diffuse Infrared Light from the COBE DIRBE Maps. I. C(0) and Limits on the Near-Infrared Background

This paper is devoted to studying the CIB through its correlation properties. We studied the limits on CIB anisotropy in the near IR (1.25, 2.2, and 3.5 um, or $J,;K,;L$) bands at a scale of 0.7deg using the COBEfootnote{ The National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/GSFC) is responsible for the design, development, and operation of the {it COBE}. Scientific guidance is provided by the {it COBE} Science Working Group. GSFC is also responsible for the development of the analysis software and for the production of the mission data sets.} Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) data. In single bands we obtain the upper limits on the zero-lag correlation signal $C(0)= langle( u delta I_ u)^2 angle < 3.6 imes 10^{-16},; 5.1 imes 10^{-17},; 5.7 imes 10^{-18}$ w2m4sr2 for the $J,K,L$ bands respectively. The DIRBE data exhibit a clear color between the various bands with a small dispersion. On the other hand most of the CIB is expected to come from redshifted galaxies and thus should have different color properties. We use this observation to develop a `color subtraction' method of linear combinations of maps at two different bands. This method is expected to suppress the dominant fluctuations from foreground stars and nearby galaxies, while not reducing (or perhaps even amplifying) the extragalactic contribution to $C(0)$. Applying this technique gives significantly lower and more isotropic limits.Comment: 44 pages postcript; includes 5 tables, 14 figures. Astrophysical Journal, in pres