Intensity Mapping with Carbon Monoxide Emission Lines and the Redshifted 21 cm Line

Understand

We quantify the prospects for using emission lines from rotational transitions of the CO molecule to perform an `intensity mapping' observation at high redshift during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR).

• The aim of CO intensity mapping is to observe the combined CO emission from many unresolved galaxies, to measure the spatial fluctuations in this emission, and use this as a tracer of large scale structure at very early times in the history of our Universe.
• This measurement would help determine the properties of molecular clouds -- the sites of star formation -- in the very galaxies that reionize the Universe.
• We further consider the possibility of cross-correlating CO intensity maps with future observations of the redshifted 21 cm line.