Evolution of ISM Contents of Massive Galaxies from z = 2 to 0.3

Abstract

The mass of ISM in high redshift Galaxies is a major determinant of their morphology, star formation activity and how they will evolve to low redshift. Measurement of the CO lines at z > 0.5 are time consuming, even with the sensitivity of ALMA, and the derived ISM masses are subject to uncertainty in the CO-to-H_2 conversion factor. Here I describe a much faster technique— measuring the long wavelength Rayleigh-Jeans dust emission using the spectacular continuum sensitivity of ALMA. Using a metallicity-dependent gas-to-dust abundance ratio derived from studies of low-z galaxies, one then obtains the ISM mass. Initial results from our ALMA Cycle-0 observations are presented for a small sample of stellar-mass selected galaxies in COSMOS. This technique will enable measurement of 100's of galaxies at high-z with observations of typically ∼10 min per galaxy.

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