Photometric Redshifts: A New Tool for Studying High-Redshift Clusters

Abstract

We present the first results of our application of photometric redshifts to the study of galaxy populations in high-redshift clusters. For this survey, we are examining a sample of galaxy clusters at z > 0.6 which have already been well-studied in the optical and infrared wavelengths (Oke, Postman & Lubin 1998). Our main goal is to use photometric redshifts to delineate accurately between field and cluster galaxies. Once we isolate the cluster galaxies, we can directly study the properties of the galaxy population in each high-redshift cluster. Specifically, we are studying the cluster morphological fractions, the morphology-density relation, and the large scale structure distribution. Although we have encountered some operational problems with our photometric redshift technique, early results suggest that this procedure will become a significant tool for studying high-redshift clusters.