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Issue A&A
Volume 451, Number 2, May IV 2006
Page(s) 409 - 416
Section Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies)
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20054705

A&A 451, 409-416 (2006)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20054705

The VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey

Luminosity dependence of clustering at z $\simeq 1$
A. Pollo1, 2, 3, L. Guzzo2, O. Le Fèvre1, B. Meneux1, A. Cappi4, P. Franzetti5, A. Iovino2, H. J. McCracken6, 7, C. Marinoni8, 1, G. Zamorani4, D. Bottini5, B. Garilli5, V. Le Brun1, D. Maccagni5, J. P. Picat9, R. Scaramella10, M. Scodeggio5, L. Tresse1, G. Vettolani11, A. Zanichelli11, C. Adami1, S. Arnouts1, S. Bardelli4, M. Bolzonella12, S. Charlot6, P. Ciliegi4, T. Contini9, S. Foucaud13, I. Gavignaud9, 14, O. Ilbert12, B. Marano12, A. Mazure1, R. Merighi4, S. Paltani15, 16, R. Pellò9, L. Pozzetti4, M. Radovich17, E. Zucca4, M. Bondi11, A. Bongiorno12, G. Busarello17, O. Cucciati2, 18, L. Gregorini11, F. Lamareille9, G. Mathez9, Y. Mellier6, 7, P. Merluzzi17, V. Ripepi17 and D. Rizzo19

1  Laboratoire d'Astropysique de Marseile, UMR 6110 CNRS, Université de Provence, BP 8, 13376 Marseille Cedex 12, France
    e-mail: agnieszka.pollo@oamp.fr
2  INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Bianchi 46, 23807, Merate & via Brera 28, 20121 Milano, Italy
3  Astronomical Observatory, Jagiellonian University, ul. Orla 171, 30-244 Kraków, Poland
4  INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
5  INAF - IASF Milano, via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy
6  Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, 98 bis Bvd Arago, 75014 Paris, France
7  Observatoire de Paris, LERMA, 61 Avenue de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France
8  Centre de Physique Théorique CNRS - Luminy and Université de Provence, UMR 6207, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France
9  Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de l'Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (UMR 5572), 14 avenue E. Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
10  INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via di Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
11  INAF - IRA, via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
12  Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Astronomia, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
13  School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG72RD, UK
14  Universitat Postdam, Astrophysik, 14469 Postdam, Germany
15  Integral Science Data Centre, ch. d'Écogia 16, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
16  Geneva Observatory, ch. des Maillettes 51, 1290 Sauverny, Switherland
17  INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, via Moiariello 16, 80131 Napoli, Italy
18  Universitá di Milano-Bicocca, Dipartimento di Fisica, Piazza delle Scienze 3, 20126 Milano, Italy
19  Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK

(Received 16 December 2005 / Accepted 16 January 2006)

Abstract
We investigate the dependence of galaxy clustering on the galaxy intrinsic luminosity at high redshift, using the data from the First Epoch VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey (VVDS). The size (6530 galaxies) and depth (IAB<24) of the survey allows us to measure the projected two-point correlation function of galaxies, $w_{\rm p}(r_{\rm p})$, for a set of volume-limited samples up to an effective redshift $\left<z\right>=0.9$ and median absolute magnitude -19.6< MB < -21.3. Fitting $w_{\rm p}(r_{\rm p})$ with a single power-law model for the real-space correlation function $\xi(r)=(r/r_0)^{-\gamma}$, we measure the relationship of the correlation length r0 and the slope $\gamma$ with the sample median luminosity for the first time at such high redshift. Values from our lower-redshift samples (0.1<z<0.5) are fully consistent with the trend observed by larger local surveys. In our high redshift sample (0.5<z<1.2), we find that the clustering strength suddenly rises around MB*, apparently with a sharper inflection than at low redshifts. Galaxies in the faintest sample ( $\left<M_B\right>=-19.6$) have a correlation length r0=2.7+0.3-0.3 h-1 Mpc, compared to r0=5.0+1.5-1.6 h-1 Mpc at $\left<M_B\right>=-21.3$. The slope of the correlation function is observed to correspondingly steepen significantly from $\gamma=1.6^{+0.1}_{-0.1}$ to $\gamma=2.4^{+0.4}_{-0.2}$. This is not observed either by large local surveys or in our lower-redshift samples and seems to imply a significant change in the way luminous galaxies trace dark-matter halos at $z\sim 1$ with respect to $z\sim 0$. At our effective median redshift $z \simeq 0.9$ this corresponds to a strong difference of the relative bias, from b/b* < 0.7 for galaxies with L < L* to $b/b* \simeq 1.4$ for galaxies with L > L*.


Key words: cosmology: large scale structure of Universe -- cosmology: observations -- methods: statistical -- galaxies: evolution





© ESO 2006

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