The high redshift star-formation history from carbon-monoxide intensity maps

Understand

We demonstrate how cosmic star-formation history can be measured with one-point statistics of carbon-monoxide intensity maps.

• Using a P(D) analysis, the luminosity function of CO-emitting sources can be inferred from the measured one-point intensity PDF.
• The star-formation rate density (SFRD) can then be obtained, at several redshifts, from the CO luminosity density.
• We study the effects of instrumental noise, line foregrounds, and target redshift, and obtain constraints on the CO luminosity density of order 10%.