Discovering Large-Scale Structure in ORELSE Survey

We use its rich data in combination with a powerful new technique, Voronoi tessellation Monte-Carlo (VMC) mapping, to search for serendipitous galaxy overdensities at 0.55<z<1.37 within 15 ORELSE fields, a combined spectroscopic footprint of ~1.4 square degrees.

Through extensive tests with both observational data and our own mock galaxy catalogs, we optimize the method's many free parameters to maximize its efficacy for general overdensity searches. Our overdensity search yielded 402 new overdensity candidates with precisely measured redshifts and an unprecedented sensitivity down to low total overdensity masses M_tot_>5*10^13^M_{sun}_). Using the mock catalogs, we estimated the purity and completeness of our overdensity catalog as a function of redshift, total mass, and spectroscopic redshift fraction, finding impressive levels of both 0.92/0.83 and 0.60/0.49 for purity/completeness at z=0.8 and z=1.2, respectively, for all overdensity masses at spectroscopic fractions of ~20%.