Presentation #224.03 in the session Evolution of Galaxies IV.
Understanding the detailed properties of galaxies’ neutral atomic gas reservoirs is a key requirement for understanding their overall cosmic evolution. The Looking At the Distant Universe with the MeerKAT Array (LADUMA) survey, now well on its way to very deep observations in two frequency bands of a region encompassing the Chandra Deep Field South, is poised to extend the study of HI emission in galaxies to an unprecedented z = 1.4, when the universe was only a third of its present age. As a bonus, LADUMA will also extend the study of OH megamasers (a probe of the cosmic history of gas-rich mergers) to an unprecedented z = 1.8. This talk will present an update on LADUMA’s scientific objectives, observations, and data processing, along with a first look at new HI and OH detections. This work has been supported by the National Science Foundation through grant AST-1814421.