Radio studies of galaxy formation: Dense Gas History of the Universe

Understand

Line and continuum studies at centimeter through submillimeter wavelengths address probe deep into the earliest, most active and dust obscured phases of galaxy formation, and reveal the molecular and cool atomic gas.

• We summarize the techniques of radio astronomy to perform these studies, then review the progress on radio studies of galaxy formation.
• The dominant work over the last decade has focused on massive, luminous starburst galaxies (submm galaxies and AGN host galaxies).
• The far infrared luminosities are ~ 1e13 Lsun, implying star formation rates, SFR > 1e3 Msun/year.