Person:

Mashian, Natalie

We show that the cumulative CO emission from galaxies throughout cosmic history distorts the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at a level that is well above the detection limit of future instruments, such as the Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE). The modeled CO signal has a prominent bump in the frequency interval 100-200 GHz, with a characteristic peak intensity of ~ 2×10−23 W m−2 Hz−1 sr−1. Most of the CO foreground originates from modest redshifts, z ~ 2-5, and needs to be efficiently removed for more subtle distortions from the earlier universe to be detected.

We present a novel approach to estimating the intensity mapping signal of any CO rotational line emitted during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). Our approach is based on large velocity gradient (LVG) modeling, a radiative transfer modeling technique that generates the full CO spectral line energy distribution (SLED) for a specified gas kinetic temperature, volume density, velocity gradient, molecular abundance, and column density. These parameters, which drive the physics of CO transitions and ultimately dictate the shape and amplitude of the CO SLED, can be linked to the global properties of the host galaxy, mainly the star formation rate (SFR) and the SFR surface density. By further employing an empirically derived SFR-M relation for high redshift galaxies, we can express the LVG parameters, and thus the specific intensity of any CO rotational transition, as functions of the host halo mass M and redshift z. Integrating over the range of halo masses expected to host CO-luminous galaxies, we predict a mean CO(1-0) brightness temperature ranging from ~0.6 {\mu}K at z= 6 to ~0.03 {\mu} at z= 10 with brightness temperature fluctuations of Δ2CO ~ 0.1 and 0.005 {\mu}K respectively, at k = 0.1 Mpc−1. In this model, the CO emission signal remains strong for higher rotational levels at z = 6, with ~ 0.3 and 0.05 {\mu}K for the CO J = 6->5 and CO J = 10->9 transitions respectively. Including the effects of CO photodissociation in these molecular clouds, especially at low metallicities, results in the overall reduction in the amplitude of the CO signal, with the low- and high-J lines weakening by 2-20% and 10-45%, respectively, over the redshift range 4 < z < 10.