Description
This paper describes the acquisition and analysis of imaging data for the identification of galaxies associated with z~4 damped Ly{alpha} systems. We present deep BRI images of three fields known to contain four z~4 damped systems. We discuss the reduction and calibration of the data, detail the color criteria used to identify z~4 galaxies, and present a photometric redshift analysis to complement the color selection. We have found no galaxy candidates closer to the QSO than 7" that could be responsible for the damped Ly{alpha} systems. Assuming that at least one of the galaxies is not directly beneath the QSO, we set an upper limit on this damped Ly {alpha} system of L<L^*^_LBG_/4. Finally, we have established a Web site to release these imaging data to the public, at http://kingpin.ucsd.edu/~dlaimg/papers/refern.html . The observations where made with LRIS on the Keck II telescope, on 13 Jan 1999 for PSS 0132+1341 and BR 0951-0450, and 23 Jan 1999 for PSS 1443+2724.
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