The CO-Mapping Array Pathfinder Survey - A New Window on Cosmic Evolution

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Principal Investigator Cleary and his team are studying galaxies during the epoch of galaxy assembly, which reached its peak when the Universe was a few billion years old. Because most galaxies are faint and difficult to observe, astronomers often look at individual bright galaxies, that are not representative of the whole. Instead, the team are using a new technique where they take a series of low resolution “blurry” images of the sky using telescopes that are designed to detect radio emission from carbon monoxide molecules. These blurry images are the sum of the radio emission from the gas in many galaxies, faint and bright. Careful analysis of the data will help us understand how these early galaxies grew through the conversion of gas into stars, paving the way for future studies looking even further back in time. To broaden participation the team are collaborating with the Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope and the Lewis Center for Educational Research to train teachers in the use of a 34 m radio telescope. The teachers and their students will observe the radio sky in real-time from their classroom. In addition, the team will develop classroom activities specific to their research.The CO Mapping Array Project (COMAP) uses line intensity mapping (LIM) of carbon monoxide (CO) to trace the distribution and global properties of galaxies over cosmic time, back to the Epoch of Reionization. This project will complete the on-going 5-year survey of 12 sq. deg. to detect the CO signal from z~3. Analysis should lead to a detection of the CO(1-0) power spectrum and the CO-galaxy cross spectrum, leading to detections of the clustering amplitude and constraints on the cosmic molecular gas abundance and star formation history at z=2.4-3.4.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.