A novel analysis of contamination in Lyman-break galaxy samples at z ∼ 6-8: spatial correlation with intermediate-redshift galaxies at z ∼ 1.3-2

Abstract

Potential contamination from low/intermediate-redshift galaxies, such as objects with a prominent Balmer break, affects the photometric selection of high-redshift galaxies through identification of a Lyman break. Traditionally, contamination is estimated from spectroscopic follow-up and/or simulations. Here, we introduce a no v el approach to estimating contamination for Lyman- break galaxy (LBG) samples based on measuring spatial correlation with the parent population of lower redshift interlopers. We propose two conceptual approaches applicable to different surv e y strate gies: a single large contiguous field and a surv e y consisting of multiple independent lines of sight. For a large si..