Description
Cold molecular gas is the fuel for star formation. Tracing the evolution of the cosmic density of molecular gas is therefore key to understanding the physical processes that drive galaxy formation through cosmic time, including the star formation rate density and the baryon cycle of matter in and out of galaxies. In the last decade, spectral scan surveys on all large interferometers (ALMA, NOEMA and the VLA) have provided the first picture of the cosmic molecular gas density. However, the total cosmic volume that has been probed so far is limited, making these observations sensitive to cosmic variance and leaving the bright end of the CO luminosity function largely unconstrained. This project focuses on answering these open questions with the ALMA spectral scan WIDE-ASPECS. WIDE-ASPECS is one of the largest molecular deep fields to date, spanning around 43 arcmin2 (~9x the area of the ASPECS Large Program). We present the first results coming from WIDE-ASPECS, including CO emitting galaxies found in this data and their counterparts in JWST, HST and Herschel data. These line emitters are further used to pin down the bright end of the CO luminosity function, and thereby constrain the evolution of the cosmic molecular gas density.
| Talk category | NOVA Network 1 |
|---|---|
| Preference for a talk or poster | Poster |
