# The ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the HUDF: CO luminosity functions and the molecular gas content of galaxies through cosmic history

## TL;DR

This study uses ALMA data from the HUDF to measure how the CO luminosity function and molecular gas content of galaxies have evolved over cosmic time, revealing a peak in molecular gas density at z~1.5 and a close link to star formation history.

## Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive measurement of the CO luminosity function evolution and cosmic molecular gas density from z>1 using deep ALMA observations.

## Key findings

- CO luminosity function evolves with redshift, decreasing in luminosity by an order of magnitude from z~2 to present.
- The majority of cosmic CO luminosity at z=1-3 is recovered in the observations.
- Cosmic molecular gas density peaks at z~1.5 and declines to the present, closely matching the star formation rate density evolution.

## Abstract

We use the results from the ALMA large program ASPECS, the spectroscopic survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), to constrain CO luminosity functions of galaxies and the resulting redshift evolution of $\rho$(H$_2$). The broad frequency range covered enables us to identify CO emission lines of different rotational transitions in the HUDF at $z>1$. We find strong evidence that the CO luminosity function evolves with redshift, with the knee of the CO luminosity function decreasing in luminosity by an order of magnitude from $\sim$2 to the local universe. Based on Schechter fits, we estimate that our observations recover the majority (up to $\sim$90%, depending on the assumptions on the faint end) of the total cosmic CO luminosity at $z$=1.0-3.1. After correcting for CO excitation, and adopting a Galactic CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor, we constrain the evolution of the cosmic molecular gas density $\rho$(H$_2$): this cosmic gas density peaks at $z\sim1.5$ and drops by factor of $6.5_{-1.4}^{+1.8}$ to the value measured locally. The observed evolution in $\rho$(H$_2$) therefore closely matches the evolution of the cosmic star formation rate density $\rho_{\rm SFR}$. We verify the robustness of our result with respect to assumptions on source inclusion and/or CO excitation. As the cosmic star formation history can be expressed as the product of the star formation efficiency and the cosmic density of molecular gas, the similar evolution of $\rho$(H$_2$) and $\rho_{\rm SFR}$ leaves only little room for a significant evolution of the average star formation efficiency in galaxies since $z\sim 3$ (85% of cosmic history).