Detecting high-zgalaxies in the near-infrared background

Emission from high-z galaxies must unquestionably contribute to the near-infrared background (NIRB). However, this contribution has so far proven difficult to isolate, even after subtracting the resolved galaxies to deep levels. The remaining NIRB fluctuations are dominated by unresolved low-z galaxies on small angular scales and by an unidentified component with unclear origin on large scales (≈1000 arcsec). In this article, by analysing mock maps generated from semi-numerical simulations and empirically determined LUV − Mh relations, we find that fluctuations associated with galaxies at 5 < z < 10 amount to several per cent of the unresolved NIRB flux fluctuations. We investigate the properties of this component for different survey areas and limiting magnitudes. In all cases, we show that this signal can be efficiently, and most easily at small angular scales, isolated by cross-correlating the source-subtracted NIRB with Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) detected in the same field by Hubble Space Telescope (HST) surveys. This result provides a fresh insight into the properties of reionization sources.