The normalized distribution of the density values in log-space for each estimator. The distributions are smooth and close to Gaussian. The average field densities as calculated with Eq. (19) are plotted as dashed lines. A broader range in densities (DTFE, kNN) denotes that the estimator detects more clustering. More clustering results in more galaxies in higher density regions, shifting the peak of the distribution to the right. The dotted line represents the measured average field density from the selection function (see text). Left: “cone” sample. Right: “shell” sample.