A Framework for Simultaneously Measuring Field Densities and the High-z Luminosity Function

Abstract

Cosmic variance from large-scale structure will be a major source of uncertainty for galaxy surveys at z > 6, but that same structure will also provide an opportunity to identify and study dense environments in the early Universe. Using a robust model for galaxy clustering, we directly incorporate large-scale densities into an inference framework that simultaneously measures the high-z (z > 6) UV luminosity function and the average matter density of each distinct volume in a survey. Through this framework, we forecast the performance of several major upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) galaxy surveys. We find that they can constrain field matter densities down to the theoretical limit imposed by Poisson noise and unambiguously identify over-dense (and under-dense) regions on transverse scales of tens of comoving Mpc. We also predict JWST will measure the luminosity function with a precision at z = 12 comparable to existing Hubble Space Telescope's constraints at z = 8 (and even better for the faint-end slope). We also find that wide-field surveys are especially important in distinguishing luminosity function models.

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Cited by in corpus (7)

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• Constraints on the early Universe star formation efficiency from galaxy clustering and halo modeling of H$\alpha$ and [O III] emitters
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• First Light and Reionisation Epoch Simulations (FLARES) X: Environmental Galaxy Bias and Survey Variance at High Redshift
• A joint measurement of galaxy luminosity functions and large-scale field densities during the Epoch of Reionization