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Description
Metal absorption systems are products of star formation. They are believed to be associated with massive star-forming galaxies, which have significantly enriched their surroundings. To test this idea with high column density CIV absorption systems at z~5.7, we study the projected distribution of galaxies and characterize the environment of CIV systems in two independent quasar lines of sight: J103027.01+052455.0 and J113717.73+354956.9. Using wide-field photometry (~80x60h^-1^ comoving Mpc), we select bright (M_UV(1350{AA})_<~-21.0mag) Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at z~5.7 in a redshift slice {Delta}z~0.2 and we compare their projected distribution with z~5.7 narrow-band selected Lyman alpha emitters (LAEs, {Delta}z~0.08). We find that the CIV systems are located more than 10h^-1^ projected comoving Mpc from the main concentrations of LBGs and no candidate is closer than ~5h^-1^ projected comoving Mpc. In contrast, an excess of LAEs - lower mass galaxies - is found on scales of ~10h^-1^ comoving Mpc, suggesting that LAEs are the primary candidates for the source of the CIV systems. Furthermore, the closest object to the system in the field J1030+0524 is a faint LAE at a projected distance of 212h^-1^ physical kpc. However, this work cannot rule out undiscovered lower mass galaxies as the origin of these absorption systems. We conclude that, in contrast with lower redshift examples (z<~3.5), strong CIV absorption systems at z~5.7 trace low-to-intermediate density environments dominated by low-mass galaxies. Moreover, the excess of LAEs associated with high levels of ionizing flux agrees with the idea that faint galaxies dominate the ionizing photon budget at this redshift.
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