A Mixture of LBG Overdensities in the Fields of Three 6 < z < 7 Quasars: Implications for the Robustness of Photometric Selection

Abstract

The most luminous quasars at z > 6 are suspected to be both highly clustered and to reside in the most massive dark matter halos in the early universe, making them prime targets to search for galaxy overdensities and/or protoclusters. We search for Lyman-break dropout-selected galaxies using HST WFC3/ACS broadband imaging in the fields of three 6 < z < 7 quasars, as well as for their simultaneously observed coordinated parallel fields, and constrain their photometric redshifts using EAZY. One field, J0305-3150, shows a volume density 10× higher than the blank-field UV luminosity function (UVLF) at M UV