377 research outputs found
Carbon Monoxide Intensity Mapping at Moderate Redshifts
We present a study of the feasibility of an intensity-mapping survey
targeting the 115 GHz CO(1-0) rotational transition at . We consider
four possible models and estimate the spatial and angular power spectra of CO
fluctuations predicted by each of them. The frequency bandwidths of most
proposed CO intensity mapping spectrographs are too small to use the Limber
approximation to calculate the angular power spectrum, so we present an
alternative method for calculating the angular power spectrum. The models we
consider span two orders of magnitude in signal amplitude, so there is a
significant amount of uncertainty in the theoretical predictions of this
signal. We then consider a parameterized set of hypothetical spectrographs
designed to measure this power spectrum and predict the signal-to-noise ratios
expected under these models. With the spectrographs we consider we find that
three of the four models give an SNR greater than 10 within one year of
observation. We also study the effects on SNR of varying the parameters of the
survey in order to demonstrate the importance of carefully considering survey
parameters when planning such an experiment.Comment: 7 pages, 8 fgures, published in MNRA
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