%0 Generic %1 furlanetto2022expected %A Furlanetto, Steven R. %A Mirocha, Jordan %D 2022 %K library %T On the expected purity of photometric galaxy surveys targeting the Cosmic Dawn %U http://arxiv.org/abs/2208.12828 %X Over the last three decades, photometric galaxy selection using the Lyman-break technique has transformed our understanding of the high-z Universe, providing large samples of galaxies at 3 < z < 8 with relatively small contamination. With the advent of the James Webb Space Telescope, the Lyman-break technique has now been extended to z ~ 17. However, the purity of the resulting samples has not been tested. Here we use a simple model, built on the robust foundation of the dark matter halo mass function, to show that the expected level of contamination rises dramatically at z > 10, especially for luminous galaxies, placing stringent requirements on the selection process. The most luminous sources at z > 12 are likely at least ten thousand times rarer than potential contaminants, so extensive spectroscopic followup campaigns may be required to identify a small number of target sources.

@misc{furlanetto2022expected, abstract = {Over the last three decades, photometric galaxy selection using the Lyman-break technique has transformed our understanding of the high-z Universe, providing large samples of galaxies at 3 < z < 8 with relatively small contamination. With the advent of the James Webb Space Telescope, the Lyman-break technique has now been extended to z ~ 17. However, the purity of the resulting samples has not been tested. Here we use a simple model, built on the robust foundation of the dark matter halo mass function, to show that the expected level of contamination rises dramatically at z > 10, especially for luminous galaxies, placing stringent requirements on the selection process. The most luminous sources at z > 12 are likely at least ten thousand times rarer than potential contaminants, so extensive spectroscopic followup campaigns may be required to identify a small number of target sources.}, added-at = {2022-08-30T09:23:06.000+0200}, author = {Furlanetto, Steven R. and Mirocha, Jordan}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2c8e7158a18c7871855220a14b7647268/gpkulkarni}, description = {On the expected purity of photometric galaxy surveys targeting the Cosmic Dawn}, interhash = {b8cf3c286a9046b95d056492945ea4e6}, intrahash = {c8e7158a18c7871855220a14b7647268}, keywords = {library}, note = {cite arxiv:2208.12828Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to MNRAS}, timestamp = {2022-08-30T09:23:06.000+0200}, title = {On the expected purity of photometric galaxy surveys targeting the Cosmic Dawn}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/2208.12828}, year = 2022 }