A search for the submillimetre counterparts to Lyman break galaxies

We have carried out targeted submillimetre observations as part of a progra mme to explore the connection between the rest-frame ultraviolet and far-in frared properties of star-forming galaxies at high redshift, which is curre ntly poorly understood. On the one hand, the Lyman break technique is very effective at selecting z similar to 3 galaxies. On the other, 'blank-field' imaging in the submillimetre seems to turn up sources routinely, amongst w hich some are star-forming galaxies at similar redshifts. Already much work has been done searching for optical identifications of objects detected us ing the SCUBA instrument. Here we have taken the opposite approach, perform ing submillimetre photometry for a sample of Lyman break galaxies, the ultr aviolet properties of which imply high star formation rates. The total sign al from our Lyman break sample is undetected in the submillimetre, at an rm s level of similar to0.5 mJy, which implies that the population of Lyman br eak galaxies does not constitute a large part of the recently detected blan k-field submillimetre sources. However, our one detection suggests that wit h reasonable SCUBA integrations we might expect to detect those few Lyman b reak galaxies that are far-infrared brightest.