Cooling lines as probes of the formation and buildup of galaxies and black holes

Abstract

We discuss the use of SPICA to study the cosmic history of star formation and accretion by supermassive black holes. The cooling lines, in particular the high-J rotational lines of CO, provide a clear-cut and unique diagnostic for separating the contributions of star formation and AGN accretion to the total infrared luminosity of active, gas-rich galaxies. We briefly review existing efforts for studying high-J CO emission from galaxies at low and high redshift. We finally comment on the detectability of cooling radiation from primordial (very low metallicity) galaxies containing an accreting supermassive black hole with SPICA/SAFARI.

to appear in the proceedings of "The Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology & Astrophysics: Revealing the Origins of Planets and Galaxies", Oxford, July 2-8, 2009