Detecting Massive Galaxies at High Redshift using the Dark Energy Survey
  The Dark Energy Survey (DES) will be unprecedented in its ability to probe
exceptionally large cosmic volumes to relatively faint optical limits.
Primarily designed for the study of comparatively low redshift (z<2) galaxies
with the aim of constraining dark energy, an intriguing byproduct of the survey
will be the identification of massive (>10^(12.0) M_sun) galaxies at z>~4. This
will greatly improve our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. By both
passively evolving the low redshift mass function and extrapolating the
observed high redshift mass function, we find that such galaxies should be rare
but nonetheless present at early times, with predicted number densities of
~0.02 deg^-2. The unique combination of depth and coverage that DES provides
will allow the identification of such galaxies should they exist - potentially
identifying hundreds of such sources. We then model possible high redshift
galaxies and determine their detectability using the DES filter sets and
depths. We model sources with a broad range stellar properties and find that
for these galaxies to be detected they must be either sufficiently young, high
mass and/or relatively dust free (E(B-V)<0.45) - with these parameters jointly
affecting each galaxy's detectability. We also propose colour-colour selection
criteria for the identification of both pristine and dusty sources and find
that, although contamination fractions will be high, the most reliable
candidate massive high redshift galaxies are likely to be identifiable in the
DES data through prioritisation of colour-selected sources.
