Automated Mining of the ALMA Archive in the COSMOS Field (A3COSMOS): II. Cold Molecular Gas Evolution out to Redshift 6

B. Groves; B. Magnelli; Daizhong Liu; D. A. Riechers; E. Daddi; E. Jimenez-Andrade; E. Schinnerer; F. Bertoldi; Georgios E. Magdis; G. Popping

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Automated Mining of the ALMA Archive in the COSMOS Field (A3COSMOS): II. Cold Molecular Gas Evolution out to Redshift 6

Daizhong Liu, E. Schinnerer, B. Groves, B. Magnelli, P. Lang, S. Leslie, E. Jimenez-Andrade, D. A. Riechers

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G. Popping, Georgios E. Magdis, E. Daddi, M. Sargent, Yu Gao, Y. Fudamoto, P. A. Oesch, F. Bertoldi

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Submitted 28 Oct 2019

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim Our proposed functional form provides a statistically better fit to current data (than functional forms in the literature), and implies a "downsizing" effect (i.e., more-massive galaxies evolve earlier than less-massive ones) and "mass-quenching" (gas consumption slows down with cosmic time for massive galaxies but speeds up for low-mass ones).

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arXiv ID1910.12883 (version 1)

Pith IDIH4WJHBF, Pith's permanent record of this paper and its review

CitationB. Groves, B. Magnelli, Daizhong Liu, D. A. Riechers, E. Daddi, E. Jimenez-Andrade, E. Schinnerer, F. Bertoldi, Georgios E. Magdis, G. Popping, M. Sargent, P. A. Oesch, P. Lang, S. Leslie, Y. Fudamoto, Yu Gao. "Automated Mining of the ALMA Archive in the COSMOS Field (A3COSMOS): II. Cold Molecular Gas Evolution out to Redshift 6." arXiv:1910.12883 (2019). https://pith.science/paper/IH4WJHBF

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Compiled by classifier-1.13.0 via TypeSafe API, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 6,041 input tokens.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.78 · states limitation 0.17 · human participants 0.02 · controlled comparison 0.16 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.90 · compares with prior results 0.96 · mentions code or data availability 0.05.

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We present new measurements of the cosmic cold molecular gas evolution out to redshift 6 based on systematic mining of the ALMA public archive in the COSMOS deep field (A3COSMOS). Our A3COSMOS dataset contains ~700 galaxies (0.3 < z < 6) with high-confidence ALMA detections in the (sub-)millimeter continuum and multi-wavelength spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Multiple gas mass calibration methods are compared and biases in band conversions (from observed ALMA wavelength to rest-frame Rayleigh-Jeans(RJ)-tail continuum) have been tested. Combining our A3COSMOS sample with ~1,000 CO-observed galaxies at 0 < z < 4 (75% at z < 0.1), we parameterize galaxies' molecular gas depletion time and molecular gas to stellar mass ratio (gas fraction) each as a function of the stellar mass, offset from the star-forming main sequence (Delta MS) and cosmic age (or redshift). Our proposed functional form provides a statistically better fit to current data (than functional forms in the literature), and implies a "downsizing" effect (i.e., more-massive galaxies evolve earlier than less-massive ones) and "mass-quenching" (gas consumption slows down with cosmic time for massive galaxies but speeds up for low-mass ones). Adopting galaxy stellar mass functions and applying our function for gas mass calculation, we for the first time infer the cosmic cold molecular gas density evolution out to redshift 6 and find agreement with CO blind surveys as well as semi-analytic modeling. These together provide a coherent picture of cold molecular gas, SFR and stellar mass evolution in galaxies across cosmic time.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#	sentence	role	the authors' own work	states the main conclusion	strength
s0	We present new measurements of the cosmic cold molecular gas evolution out to redshift 6 based on systematic mining of the ALMA public archive in the COSMOS deep field (A3COSMOS).	contribution 0.99	0.97	0.09	asserted 1.00
s1	Our A3COSMOS dataset contains ~700 galaxies (0.3 < z < 6) with high-confidence ALMA detections in the (sub-)millimeter continuum and multi-wavelength spectral energy distributions (SEDs).	contribution 0.50	0.95	0.03	asserted 1.00
s2	Multiple gas mass calibration methods are compared and biases in band conversions (from observed ALMA wavelength to rest-frame Rayleigh-Jeans(RJ)-tail continuum) have been tested.	method 0.99	0.92	0.02	asserted 0.95
s3	Combining our A3COSMOS sample with ~1,000 CO-observed galaxies at 0 < z < 4 (75% at z < 0.1), we parameterize galaxies' molecular gas depletion time and molecular gas to stellar mass ratio (gas fraction) each as a function of the stellar mass, offset from the star-forming main sequence (Delta MS) and cosmic age (or redshift).	method 0.71	0.94	0.10	asserted 1.00
s4	Our proposed functional form provides a statistically better fit to current data (than functional forms in the literature), and implies a "downsizing" effect (i.e., more-massive galaxies evolve earlier than less-massive ones) and "mass-quenching" (gas consumption slows down with cosmic time for massive galaxies but speeds up for low-mass ones).	interpretation 0.89	0.92	0.52	asserted 0.94
s5	Adopting galaxy stellar mass functions and applying our function for gas mass calculation, we for the first time infer the cosmic cold molecular gas density evolution out to redshift 6 and find agreement with CO blind surveys as well as semi-analytic modeling.	result 0.93	0.96	0.36	asserted 1.00
s6	These together provide a coherent picture of cold molecular gas, SFR and stellar mass evolution in galaxies across cosmic time.	interpretation 0.95	0.66	0.21	asserted 0.99

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: empirical study 0.72 · evidence from analysis of existing data 0.94.

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arXiv listing abstract v1

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full text
figures and tables
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relations to other papers

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C citations
R cross-paper relations

Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper

Original abstract

We present new measurements of the cosmic cold molecular gas evolution out to redshift 6 based on systematic mining of the ALMA public archive in the COSMOS deep field (A3COSMOS). Our A3COSMOS dataset contains ~700 galaxies (0.3 < z < 6) with high-confidence ALMA detections in the (sub-)millimeter continuum and multi-wavelength spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Multiple gas mass calibration methods are compared and biases in band conversions (from observed ALMA wavelength to rest-frame Rayleigh-Jeans(RJ)-tail continuum) have been tested. Combining our A3COSMOS sample with ~1,000 CO-observed galaxies at 0 < z < 4 (75% at z < 0.1), we parameterize galaxies' molecular gas depletion time and molecular gas to stellar mass ratio (gas fraction) each as a function of the stellar mass, offset from the star-forming main sequence (Delta MS) and cosmic age (or redshift). Our proposed functional form provides a statistically better fit to current data (than functional forms in the literature), and implies a "downsizing" effect (i.e., more-massive galaxies evolve earlier than less-massive ones) and "mass-quenching" (gas consumption slows down with cosmic time for massive galaxies but speeds up for low-mass ones). Adopting galaxy stellar mass functions and applying our function for gas mass calculation, we for the first time infer the cosmic cold molecular gas density evolution out to redshift 6 and find agreement with CO blind surveys as well as semi-analytic modeling. These together provide a coherent picture of cold molecular gas, SFR and stellar mass evolution in galaxies across cosmic time.

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References

Forward citations

Cited by 3 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

The ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the HUDF: Constraining the Molecular Content at $\log{(M_*/M_\odot)} \sim 9.5$ with CO stacking of MUSE detected $z\sim1.5$ Galaxies
astro-ph.GA 2020-09 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

Stacking CO emission from MUSE-selected galaxies provides new molecular gas constraints at log(M*/M_sun)~9.5 and z~1.5, finding the gas-to-stellar mass ratio flattens at low stellar masses.
Probing cold gas and dust in quiescent galaxies across cosmic time
astro-ph.IM 2026-10 accept novelty 2.0 of 10

This white paper argues that ALMA2040 is essential to systematically measure molecular gas, dust, and outflows in quiescent galaxies and discriminate between quenching mechanisms.
ALMA2040: Understanding the Early Assembly of Galaxies - The Formation of Star-Forming Clumps and their Role in Shaping Galaxy Evolution
astro-ph.IM 2026-10 unverdicted novelty 2.0 of 10

A community white paper making the scientific case that the proposed ALMA2040 facility will revolutionize studies of high-redshift GMCs and star-forming clumps.

How later papers used it

58 later papers cite it

Evidence: substantial. 29 of the citing papers share no author with it, and 9 of those carry a confident label from Pith's citation classifier.

Pith read 28 of the 160 citing sentences, choosing only those whose citation markers point at this paper alone, and wrote the paraphrases from them. The summary, the counts, the evidence level, the links and the quotes come from code; the summary counts the papers listed below. A later paper is listed under a label when Pith's citation classifier gives one of its sentences that label at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), Pith's reading finds that the citing paper itself did it, and a second check confirms the paraphrase against the sentence. This section lists uses only. It does not list criticism or disagreement, so their absence here says nothing about how the paper has been received. Papers that share an author with this one are listed apart, under "By the same authors". A quote is the citing authors' own sentence, shown when their paper's licence is CC BY, CC BY-SA or CC0. JSON

2 later papers by other authors are listed below: 2 used its data or values. 5 more papers by the same authors are listed: 2 used its method or tool, 1 used its data or values and 3 compared their own results with it. 1 of them appears under more than one label.

Uses its method or tool 2 of 4 papers with this label · 2 by the same authors

By the same authors

Considered Eq. 11 from this paper among the gas scaling relations it applied.

Knocking on giants' doors: I. The evolution of the dust-to-stellar mass ratio in distant dusty galaxies (2020) (same authors) · 0.99 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting
Adopted the formula described in this paper, which parametrises in terms of z, stellar mass and Delta MS, to infer the evolution of dust fraction.

The Evolving Interstellar Medium of Star-Forming Galaxies, as traced by $\texttt{Stardust}$ (2021) (same authors) · 1.00 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting

Uses its data or values 3 of 5 papers with this label · 1 by the same authors

Adopted this paper's A3COSMOS molecular gas masses, derived from dust continuum observations using another work's method, for consistency.

MAGAZ3NE: Far-IR and Radio Insights into the Nature and Properties of Ultramassive Galaxies at $z\gtrsim3$ (2025) · 0.97 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting
Showed the ratio of sSFR for galaxies on the SFMS between z about 5.5 and z about 0.2 as a function of stellar mass from this paper.

Nearby dwarf galaxies with extreme star formation rates: a window into dwarf-galaxy evolution in the early Universe (2025) · 0.85 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting

By the same authors

Used this paper's molecular gas to stellar mass ratio of about 2 at z about 5, together with another work's alpha_[CII]-to-molecular-gas conversion, to translate a lower limit into a [CII] luminosity.

The ALPINE-ALMA [C II] Survey: [C II]158micron Emission Line Luminosity Functions at $z \sim 4-6$ (2020) (same authors) · 0.99 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting

Compares with it 3 of 14 papers with this label · 3 by the same authors

By the same authors

Reported that its own results only agree with this paper's analytical relation for stellar masses above 10^10.5 solar masses.

A$^{3}$COSMOS: Dissecting the gas content of star-forming galaxies across the main sequence at 1.2 $\leq z$ < 1.6 (2023) (same authors) · 0.93 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting
Showed that the gas fractions predicted by this paper, based on dust continuum measurements only, are higher than those from another work.

Measuring the average molecular gas content of star-forming galaxies at $z=3-4$ (2021) (same authors) · 0.84 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting
Showed that its own results are well within the range of this paper's model, only slightly favoring the upper half.

The ALPINE-ALMA [C II] Survey: [C II]158micron Emission Line Luminosity Functions at $z \sim 4-6$ (2020) (same authors) · 0.99 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting

How the literature uses it

9 arXiv papers cite this in 49 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

Papers citing it · 38 sentences without a confident label

Contests it 1 paper

The relation of [ref] tends to overpredict these values by factor of 1.5-2 relative to [ref] and [ref] .

Knocking on giants' doors: I. The evolution of the dust-to-stellar mass ratio in distant dusty galaxies · Modelling the observed evolution of $M_dust/M_⋆$ · contest 0.71

Uses its method or tool 1 paper

Namely, we consider Eq. 9 from [ref] , Eq. 6 from [ref] , and Eq. 11 from [ref] .

Knocking on giants' doors: I. The evolution of the dust-to-stellar mass ratio in distant dusty galaxies · Modelling the observed evolution of $M_dust/M_⋆$ · 0.99

Uses its data or values 1 paper

Finally, we matched the mock sources to the IRAC catalogues in the same way as the real radio data and we found a 0.7$%$ percentage of spurious associations. * MIPS 24 $μ$m fluxes from the latest release (G03) of the SCOSMOS data [ref] . * The Super-deblended catalog [ref] , which includes photometry from Spitzer, Herschel, SCUBA, AzTEC, and MAMBO using as priors the radio positions at 3 GHz. * A3COSMOS catalog [ref] , which includes photometry at sub-mm wavelengths from the ALMA archive.

Illuminating the dark side of cosmic star formation two billion years after the Big Bang · The multi-wavelength catalog. · 0.90

Compares with it 2 papers

However, whilst our estimates rely exclusively on the use of photometric redshifts, the results obtained in both ASPECS LP [ref] and [ref] benefit from the inclusion of sources with more reliable spectroscopic redshifts.

Cosmic evolution of the H2 mass density and the epoch of molecular gas · Comparison of the evolution of molecular gas mass density to other studies in the literature · 0.97
At fixed redshift, the total gas mass depends more strongly on stellar mass in the [ref] scaling relation ($M_gas∼M_∗^0.65$) than in the [ref] and [ref] relations ($M_gas∼M_∗^0.3$).

High-redshift star formation in the ALMA era · Scaling relations between stellar mass, SFR, gas content, and redshift · 0.80

Cites it as support 1 paper

Such conclusion is strongly supported with the observations of the cosmic evolution of $M_gas$ and $sSFR$ ( [ref] ).

Knocking on giants' doors: I. The evolution of the dust-to-stellar mass ratio in distant dusty galaxies · Confronting observed results to models · 1.00

Cites it as background 2 papers

It is important to stress that $Z_gas$ of high-$z$ SB DSFGs is a matter of active debate (see e.g. discussions in [ref] , [ref] and [ref] ).

Knocking on giants' doors: I. The evolution of the dust-to-stellar mass ratio in distant dusty galaxies · Modelling the observed evolution of $M_dust/M_⋆$ · 0.90
The rise and fall of the cosmic star-formation rate density may be accompanied by an increase in the efficiency of star-formation at earlier times, although this remains a subject of debate (e.g., [ref] ).

Regulating Star Formation in Nearby Dusty Galaxies: Low Photoelectric Efficiencies in the Most Compact Systems · Prospects for Star-Formation at High-Redshift · 1.00

What it cites · 5 sentences without a confident label

Uses data or values from 1 paper

The majority of $1 ≲z ≲2$ complementary sample sources are from the PHIBSS 1&2 surveys () and [ref] .

The Molecular Gas Reservoirs of $z\sim 2$ Galaxies: A comparison of CO(1-0) and dust-based molecular gas masses · Sample distribution across the MS · 0.95

Compares with 1 paper

The realistic galaxy modeling has a better agreement with semi analytic models ( [ref] ).

The ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the HUDF: the molecular gas content of galaxies and tensions with IllustrisTNG and the Santa Cruz SAM · Summary · 0.85

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