ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the HUDF (ASPECS)

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 ~2 to the local universe.

Based on Schechter fits, we estimate that our observations recover the majority (up to ~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~1.5 and drops by a factor of 6.5_-1.4_^+1.8^ to the value measured locally.