1. A Foreground Masking Strategy for [C II] Intensity Mapping Experiments Using Galaxies Selected by Stellar Mass and Redshift
- Author
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Jonathon Hunacek, Guochao Sun, Bade Uzgil, Marta B. Silva, Asantha Cooray, Marco P. Viero, Tzu-Ching Chang, C. Matt Bradford, A. T. Crites, Lorenzo Moncelsi, Yun-Ting Cheng, Steve Hailey-Dunsheath, James J. Bock, Michael Zemcov, and Astronomy
- Subjects
Stellar mass ,Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,first stars ,MU-M ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,LUMINOSITY FUNCTIONS ,STAR-FORMATION-RATE ,01 natural sciences ,ALMA SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY ,0103 physical sciences ,dark ages, reionization, first stars ,Emission spectrum ,dark ages ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Reionization ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics ,Line (formation) ,large-scale structure of universe ,LEGACY SURVEY ,Physics ,010308 nuclear & particles physics ,REIONIZATION ,Intensity mapping ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,MOLECULAR GAS ,EVOLUTION ,Galaxy ,Redshift ,diffuse radiation ,COSMOS FIELD ,13. Climate action ,Space and Planetary Science ,Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) ,cosmology: observations ,EAGLE SIMULATIONS ,intergalactic medium ,Intensity (heat transfer) - Abstract
Intensity mapping provides a unique means to probe the epoch of reionization (EoR), when the neutral intergalactic medium was ionized by the energetic photons emitted from the first galaxies. The [CII] 158$��$m fine-structure line is typically one of the brightest emission lines of star-forming galaxies and thus a promising tracer of the global EoR star-formation activity. However, [CII] intensity maps at $6 \lesssim z \lesssim 8$ are contaminated by interloping CO rotational line emission ($3 \leq J_{\rm upp} \leq 6$) from lower-redshift galaxies. Here we present a strategy to remove the foreground contamination in upcoming [CII] intensity mapping experiments, guided by a model of CO emission from foreground galaxies. The model is based on empirical measurements of the mean and scatter of the total infrared luminosities of galaxies at $z < 3$ and with stellar masses $M_{*} > 10^{8}\,\rm M_{\rm \odot}$ selected in $K$-band from the COSMOS/UltraVISTA survey, which can be converted to CO line strengths. For a mock field of the Tomographic Ionized-carbon Mapping Experiment (TIME), we find that masking out the "voxels" (spectral-spatial elements) containing foreground galaxies identified using an optimized CO flux threshold results in a $z$-dependent criterion $m^{\rm AB}_{\rm K} \lesssim 22$ (or $M_{*} \gtrsim 10^{9} \,\rm M_{\rm \odot}$) at $z < 1$ and makes a [CII]/CO$_{\rm tot}$ power ratio of $\gtrsim 10$ at $k=0.1$ $h$/Mpc achievable, at the cost of a moderate $\lesssim 8\%$ loss of total survey volume., 14 figures, 4 tables, re-submitted to ApJ after addressing reviewer's comments. Comments welcome
- Published
- 2018