Studying high-z galaxies with [C II] intensity mapping

We investigate the [C II] line intensity mapping (IM) signal from galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) to assess its detectability, the possibility to constrain the L-CII-SFR relation, and to recover the [C II] luminosity function (LF) from future experiments. By empirically assuming that log L-CII = log A + gamma SFR +/- sigma(L), we derive the [C II] LF from the observed UV LF, and the [C II] IM power spectrum. We study the shot noise and the full power spectrum separately. Although, in general, the shot-noise component has a much higher signal-to-noise ratio than the clustering one, it cannot be used to put independent constraints on log A and gamma. Full power spectrum measurements are crucial to break such degeneracy and reconstruct the [C II] LF. In our fiducial survey Si (inspired by CCAT-p/1000 h) at z similar to 6, the shot noise (clustering) signal is detectable for two (one) of the five considered L-CII-STR relations. The shot noise is generally dominated by galaxies with L-CII greater than or similar to 10(8)-10(9) L-circle dot (M-UV similar to -20 to 22), already at reach of ALMA pointed observations. However, given the small field of view of such telescope, an EM experiment would provide unique information on the bright end of the LF. The detection depth of an IM experiment crucially depends on the (poorly constrained) L-CII-SFR relation in the EoR. If the L-CII-SFR relation varies in a wide log A-gamma range, but still consistent with ALMA [C LF upper limits, even the signal from galaxies with L-CII as faint as similar to 10(7) L-circle dot could be detectable. Finally, we consider the contamination by continuum foregrounds (cosmic infrared background, dust, cosmic microwave background) and CO interloping lines, and derive the requirements on the residual contamination level to reliably extract the [C II] signal.