Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

ABSTRACT: Neutral atomic hydrogen is by far the most abundant element in galaxies. Although reasonably complete images of the HI sky exist out to redshifts of 0.08, we know surprisingly little about the HI properties of galaxies at larger redshifts. This will change dramatically with the pending completion of the upgrade of the VLA and the construction of SKA pathfinders MeerKAT and ASKAP. Soon it will be possible to make in HI deep pencil beam surveys out to z=0.5. To prepare for these new opportunities we have performed a pilot for an EVLA HI Deep Field, probing in one pointing (0.5 square degrees) all the HI at redshifts from 0 to 0.2. I will motivate the science, present preliminary results and discuss future possibilities.