Statistical Properties of Lyman Break Galaxies at z~4

2001/09/17 by Masami Ouchi, Ouchi, Masami, Kazuhiro Shimasaku +26
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0109252

To appear in the proceedings of the Marseille 2001 conference "Where is the Matter? Tracing Dark and Bright Matter with the New Generation of Large-Scale Surveys", 25-29 June 2001, Marseille (France)

arxiv created 2001/09/17 · openalex publication_date 2001/09/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We study the luminosity function and the correlation function of about 1200 z~4 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) with i'<26 that are photometrically selected from deep BRi' imaging data of a 618 arcmin² area in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field taken with Subaru Prime Focus Camera. The contamination and completeness of our LBG sample are evaluated, on the basis of the Hubble Deep Field-North (HDF-N) objects, to be 17% and 45%, respectively. We derive the UV (rest 1700A) luminosity functions (LFs) and find a large population of UV-luminous galaxies at z~4. The LFs of the red and blue subsamples imply that the bright LBGs are redder in the UV continuum than the average color of the LBGs. Then we calculate the correlation function over theta = 2''-1000'' and find that it is fitted fairly well by a power law, omega(theta)=A_omega theta^(-0.8), with A_omega=0.71 +/- 0.26. We estimate the correlation length r₀ (in comoving units) of the two-point spatial correlation function xi(r) = (r/r₀)^(-1.8) to be r₀=2.7 +0.5/-0.6 h^(-1) Mpc (Omega_m=0.3 and Omega_Lambda=0.7). The correlation function shows an excess of omega (theta) on small scales (theta < 5''), departing from the power-law fit at > 3 sigma significance level. Interpreting this as being due to galaxy mergers, we evaluate the fraction of galaxies undergoing mergers to be 3.0 +/- 0.9%, which is significantly smaller than those of galaxies at intermediate redshifts.

Related

• Subaru Deep Survey. V. A Census of Lyman Break Galaxies atz ≃ 4 and 5 in the Subaru Deep Fields: Photometric Properties
• Evolution of Lyman Break Galaxies From z=5 to 3
• The Long Faint Tail of the High-Redshift Galaxy Population
• Angular correlation functions of bright Lyman-break galaxies at 3 \lesssim z \lesssim 5
• Lyman Break Galaxies at z~3 and Beyond