Overview of Early Science from the CO Mapping Array Project (COMAP)

We report on Early Science from the CO Mapping Array Project (COMAP), which is using line intensity mapping (LIM) of carbon monoxide (CO) to trace the distribution and evolution of galaxies over cosmic time. This technique is sensitive to both faint and bright galaxies and allows their global properties to be efficiently constrained over very large volumes. We describe the Pathfinder instrument which is currently conducting a 5-year observing campaign to detect the CO signal from z~3. This is a 19-feed focal plane array (FPA) spectrometer operating over 26-34 GHz, with the largest processed bandwidth of any other FPA spectrometer. We briefly describe the data analysis and power spectrum estimation techniques. Using the first 13 months of observing, we obtain the first direct 3D constraint on the clustering component of the CO(1-0) power spectrum, ruling out two models from the literature. Based on a new model, informed by recent observational constraints, we forecast a detection of the power spectrum by the end of the nominal survey. We also report on an ongoing 30 GHz survey of the Galactic plane and present a preliminary map. Looking to the future, we consider the prospects for an expansion of the experiment targeting the Epoch of Reionization.