Trumpeting the Vuvuzela: UltraDeep HI observations with MeerKAT

The MeerKAT UltraDeep HI Survey aims to observe the 21 cm emission line of neutral hydrogen gas out to a redshift of z=1 and beyond. From both direct detections and stacked signal, we will address the HI mass function, the cosmic neutral gas density of the Universe (Omega_HI) and their evolution over cosmic times, as well as galaxy evolution via e.g., the Tully-Fisher relation, the relation between HI mass and Hubble Type or stellar mass, and the Schmidt-Kennicutt star-formation law. We propose to observe two fields, the COSMOS and Chandra Deep Field South (CDF-S) for 1000 hours each, adding an additional 4000 hours to one of these fields in 2015 when the full instantaneous bandwidth of MeerKAT (0.58-2.5 GHz) will be realised.