Contamination Estimation in Lyman-Break Galaxy Samples via Spatial Cross-Correlation
A technique for quantifying interloper contamination in photometrically selected high-redshift galaxy samples by measuring the spatial correlation between the candidate sample and a known population of intermediate-redshift galaxies. Because genuine high-redshift galaxies are physically uncorrelated with foreground galaxies, any cross-correlation or number-count correlation signal reveals misidentified interlopers, providing an independent check on contamination without spectroscopic follow-up.
2501.00301
This paper introduces a statistical method for estimating contamination by low- and intermediate-redshift interloper galaxies in photometrically selected Lyman-break galaxy (LBG) samples at z~6-8. Th…