Lyman-break galaxies (LBG) in the HUDF

The LBGs are selected using a combination of photometric redshifts and the u-band drop-out technique enabled by the introduction of an extremely deep u-band image obtained with the Keck I telescope and the blue channel of the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer. The Keck u-band image, totaling 9hr of integration time, has a 1{sigma} depth of 30.7mag/arcsec^2^, making it one of the most sensitive u-band images ever obtained.

The u-band image also substantially improves the accuracy of photometric redshift measurements of ~50% of the z~3 LBGs, significantly reducing the traditional degeneracy of colors between z~3 and z~0.2 galaxies.