ALMACAL VI: Molecular gas mass density across cosmic time via a blind search for intervening molecular absorbers

Abstract

We are just starting to understand the physical processes driving the dramatic change in cosmic star-formation rate between $z\sim 2$ and the present day. A quantity directly linked to star formation is the molecular gas density, which should be measured through independent methods to explore variations due to cosmic variance and systematic uncertainties. We use intervening CO absorption lines in the spectra of mm-bright background sources to provide a census of the molecular gas mass density of the Universe. The data used in this work are taken from ALMACAL, a wide and deep survey utilizing the ALMA calibrator archive. While we report multiple Galactic absorption lines and one intrinsic absorber, no extragalactic intervening molecular absorbers are detected. However, thanks to the large redshift path surveyed ($\Delta z=182$), we provide constraints on the molecular column density distribution function beyond $z\sim 0$. In addition, we probe column densities of N(H${}_2$) > 10${}^{16}$ atoms~cm${}^{-2}$, five orders of magnitude lower than in previous studies. We use the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation IllustrisTNG to show that our upper limits of $\rho ({\mathrm{H}}_2)\lesssim 10^{8.3}{\text{M}}_{\odot }{\text{Mpc}}^{-3}$ at $0<z\le 1.7$ already provide new constraints on current theoretical predictions of the cold molecular phase of the gas. These results are in agreement with recent CO emission-line surveys and are complementary to those studies. The combined constraints indicate that the present decrease of the cosmic star-formation rate history is consistent with an increasing depletion of molecular gas in galaxies compared to $z\sim 2$.

arXiv comment11 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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• The Evolution of the Baryons Associated with Galaxies Averaged over Cosmic Time and Space
• Automated Mining of the ALMA Archive in the COSMOS Field (A3COSMOS): II. Cold Molecular Gas Evolution out to Redshift 6
• The ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the HUDF: Multi-band constraints on line luminosity functions and the cosmic density of molecular gas
• COMAP Early Science: I. Overview
• COMAP Early Science: V. Constraints and Forecasts at $z\sim 3$
• An Intensity Mapping Constraint on the CO-Galaxy Cross Power Spectrum at Redshift ~ 3
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• ALMACAL IX: multi-band ALMA survey for dusty star-forming galaxies and the resolved fractions of the cosmic infrared background
• MUSE-ALMA Halos VI: Coupling Atomic, Ionised & Molecular Gas Kinematics of Galaxies
• Atomic and molecular gas as traced by [C II] emission
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• ALMACAL VIII: A pilot survey for untargeted extragalactic CO emission lines in deep ALMA calibration data
• ALMACAL. XI. Over-densities as signposts to proto-clusters? A cautionary tale
• The relationship between cluster environment and molecular gas content of star-forming galaxies in the EAGLE simulation
• Intertwined Formation of ${\mathrm{H}}_2$, Dust, and Stars in Cosmological Simulations
• ALMACAL XIII. Evolution of the CO luminosity function and the molecular gas mass density out to $z$ ~ 6
• A Global Census of Metals in the Universe
• ALMACAL X: Constraints on molecular gas in the low-redshift circumgalactic medium
• HI and H${}_2$ gas evolution over cosmic times: ColdSIM
• Cross-correlations between mm-wave line-intensity mapping and weak lensing surveys: preliminary consideration of long-term prospects
• MUSE-ALMA Haloes XIV: The ALMA Large Programme Data Release