Faint K Selected Galaxy Correlations and Clustering Evolution

Abstract

Angular and spatial correlations are measured for K-band--selected galaxies, 248 having redshifts, 54 with z>1, in two patches of combined area 27 arcmin^2. The angular correlation for K<=21.5 mag is (theta/1.4+/-0.19 arcsec e^{+/-0.1})^{-0.8}. From the redshift sample we find that the real-space correlation, calculated with q_0=0.1, of M_K<=-23.5 mag galaxies (k-corrected) is \xi(r) = (r/2.9e^{+/-0.12}1/h Mpc)^{-1.8} at a mean z= 0.34, (r/2.0e^{+/-0.15}1/h Mpc)^{-1.8} at z= 0.62, (r/1.4e^{+/-0.15}1/h Mpc)^{-1.8} at z= 0.97, and (r/1.0e^{+/-0.2}1/h Mpc)^{-1.8} at z= 1.39, the last being a formal upper limit for a blue-biased sample. In general, these are more correlated than optically selected samples in the same redshift ranges. Over the interval 0.3<= z<=0.9 galaxies with red rest-frame colors, (U-K)_0>2 AB mag, have \xi(r)=(r/2.4e^{+/-0.14}1/h Mpc)^{-1.8} whereas bluer galaxies, which have a mean B of 23.7 mag and mean [OII] equivalent width W_{eq} = 41=\AA, are very weakly correlated, with \xi(r)=(r/0.9e^{+/-0.22}1/h Mpc)^{-1.8}. For our measured growth rate of clustering, this blue population, if non-merging, can grow only into a low-redshift population less luminous than 0.4L_\ast. The cross-correlation of low- and high-luminosity galaxies at z=0.6 appears to have an excess in the correlation amplitude within 100/h kpc. The slow redshift evolution is consistent with these galaxies tracing the mass clustering in low density, Omega= 0.2, relatively unbiased, sigma_8=0.8, universe, but cannot yet exclude other possibilities.