High Resolution Imaging and Spectroscopy of Obscured Galaxies and AGN with the SPICE Far-Infrared Probe

The Space Interferometer for Cosmic Evolution (SPICE), which has spatial resolution and sensitivity comparable to JWST and ALMA at wavelengths critical to star-forming and/or dust-obscured regions (25-400 μm), is ideal for studying obscured black hole growth and star formation out to high redshifts. A key project of this proposed Probe will be an extragalactic survey over ~1 deg², detecting tens of thousands of galaxies and AGN out to redshift z~6. With its sub-arcsecond spatial resolution, SPICE will enable accurate associations of far-IR sources with their optical and X-ray counterparts, which is essential for determining the demographics of black hole growth. With spectral resolution R~3000, SPICE will also measure gas temperature, density, and metallicity in thousands of individual galaxies. SPICE can also resolve star forming regions in nearby galaxies and determine galaxy morphologies out to much larger distances. We describe how the unprecedented capabilities of SPICE address the key science questions around black hole growth and star formation.