We address the high peaks found by Steidel et al . ( 1998 ) in the redshift distribution of ‘ ‘ Lyman-break ’ ’ objects ( LBOs ) at redshift z \simeq 3 .
The highest spike represents a relative overdensity of 2.6 in the distribution of LBOs in pixels of comoving size \sim 10 h ^ { -1 } Mpc .
We examine the likelihood of such a spike in the redshift distribution within a suite of models for the evolution of structure in the Universe , including models with \Omega = 1 ( SCDM and CHDM ) and with \Omega _ { 0 } = 0.4 - 0.5 ( \Lambda CDM and OCDM ) .
Using high-resolution dissipationless N-body simulations , we analyze deep pencil-beam surveys from these models in the same way that they are actually observed , identifying LBOs with the most massive dark matter halos .
We find that all the models ( with SCDM as a marginal exception ) have a substantial probability of producing spikes similar to those observed , because the massive halos are much more clumped than the underlying matter – i.e. , they are biased .
Therefore , the likelihood of such a spike is not a good discriminator among these models .
We find in these models that the mean biasing parameter b of LBOs with respect to dark matter varies within a range b \simeq 2 - 5 on a scale of \sim 10 h ^ { -1 } Mpc .
However , all models show considerable dispersion in their biasing , with the local biasing parameter reaching values as high as ten .
We also compute the two-body correlation functions of LBOs predicted in these models .
The LBO correlation functions are less steep than galaxies today ( \gamma \approx - 1.4 ) , but show similar or slightly longer correlation lengths .