Taking three independent approaches, we investigate the simultaneous
constraints set on the cosmic star formation history from various observations,
including stellar mass density and extragalactic background light (EBL). We
compare results based on: 1) direct observations of past light-cone, 2) a model
using local fossil evidence constrained by SDSS observations at z~0 (the
`Fossil' model), and 3) theoretical ab initio models from three calculations of
cosmic star formation history: (a) new (1024)^3 Total Variation Diminishing
(TVD) cosmological hydrodynamic simulation, (b) analytic expression of
Hernquist & Springel based on cosmological Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics
(SPH) simulations, and (c) semi-analytic model of Cole et al. We find good
agreement among the three independent approaches up to the order of
observational errors, except that all the models predict bolometric EBL of
I_tot ~= 37-52 nW m^-2 sr^-1, which is at the lower edge of the the
observational estimate by Hauser & Dwek. We emphasize that the Fossil model
that consists of two components -- spheroids and disks --, when normalized to
the local observations, provides a surprisingly simple but accurate description
of the cosmic star formation history and other observable quantities. Our
analysis suggests that the consensus global parameters at z=0 are: Omega_* =
0.0023+-0.0004, I_EBL = 43+-7 nW m^-2 sr^-1 rho_SFR=(1.06+-0.22)e-2 Msun yr^-1
Mpc^-3, j_bol = (3.1+-0.2)e8 Lsun Mpc^-3.Comment: 40 page, 10 figures. ApJ in press. Matched to the accepted versio