Measurement of Galaxy Clustering at z~7.2 and the Evolution of Galaxy Bias from 3.8<z<8 in the XDF, GOODS-S AND GOODS-N

Understand

Lyman-Break Galaxy (LBG) samples observed during reionization ($z\gtrsim6$) with Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 are reaching sizes sufficient to characterize their clustering properties.

• Using a combined catalog from the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field and CANDELS surveys, containing $N=743$ LBG candidates at z>6.5 at a mean redshift of $z=7.2$, we detect a clear clustering signal in the angular correlation function (ACF) at $\sim4\sigma$, corresponding to a real-space correlation length $r_{0}=6.7^{+0.9}_{-1.0}h^{-1}$cMpc.
• The derived galaxy bias $b=8.6^{+0.9}_{-1.0}$ is that of dark-matter halos of $M=10^{11.1^{+0.2}_{-0.3}}$M$_{\odot}$ at $z=7.2$, and highlights that galaxies below the current detection limit ($M_{AB}\sim-17.7$) are expected in lower-mass halos ($M\sim10^{8}-10^{10.5}$M$_{\odot}$).
• We compute the ACF of LBGs at $z\sim3.8-z\sim5.9$ in the same surveys.