Detection and Properties of Lyman Break Galaxies at $1.6 \leq z \leq 3.0$ in GOODS-North

Abstract

Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) are actively star-forming galaxies identified through their characteristic rest-frame ultraviolet spectral break, making them powerful probes of galaxy evolution across cosmic time. We present a search for LBGs at redshifts $1.6 \leq z \leq 3.0$ in the GOODS-North field using the dropout technique combined with color selection from the 3D-HST data. We utilize two selection criteria to identify LBG candidates at $z \sim 2.1$ and $z \sim 2.7$ via F275W- and F336W-dropouts, yielding 192 and 135 newly identified LBG candidates in the redshift ranges $1.6 \leq z \leq 2.3$ and $2.3 < z \leq 3.0$, respectively. We estimate the physical properties of the LBG candidates, including stellar age, stellar mass, and star formation rate (SFR), using spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. Morphological analysis shows that the majority of galaxies in our sample exhibit disc-like structures. Overall, the results indicate that these LBGs are low- to intermediate-mass compact galaxies with effective half-light radii of approximately 3.5 kpc.