The Parallel Ionizing Emissivity Survey (PIE). I. Survey Design and Selection of Candidate Lyman Continuum Leakers at 3.1 < z < 3.5

Abstract

We present the survey design and initial results from the Parallel Ionizing Emissivity (PIE) survey. PIE is a large Hubble Space Telescope survey designed to detect Lyman continuum (LyC) emitting galaxies at 3.1 < z < 3.5 and stack their images in order to measure average LyC escape fractions as a function of galaxy properties. PIE has imaged 37 independent fields in three filters (F336W, F625W, and F814W), of which 18 are observed with a fourth band (F475W) from the accompanying PIE+ program. We use photometric colors to select candidate Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at 3.1 < z < 3.5, which can be followed up using ground-based spectrographs to confirm their redshifts. Unlike previous surveys, we use many independent fields to remove biases caused by correlated absorption in the intergalactic medium (IGM). In this paper, we describe the survey design, photometric measurements, and the use of mock galaxy samples to optimize our color selection. With three filters, we can select a galaxy sample of which ≈90% are LBGs and over 30% lie in the 3.1 < z < 3.5 range for which we can detect uncontaminated LyC emission in F336W. We also use mock IGM sight lines to measure the expected transmission of the IGM, which will allow us to determine escape fractions from our stacked galaxies. We color-select ≈1400 galaxies, and predict that this includes ≈80 LyC-emitting galaxies and ≈500 that we can use in stacking. Finally, we present the Keck/LRIS spectrum of a galaxy at z ≈ 2.99, demonstrating that we can confirm the redshifts of z ∼ 3 galaxies from the ground.