Projected two-point correlation function w_p(r_p) associated with the best-fitting HOD models (left side) and evolution of the halo occupation function of the best-fit HOD model (right side) in four UV absolute magnitude subsamples (upper panel) and four stellar mass subsamples (lower panel). The symbols and error bars (see Sect. 3 for the error estimation method) denote measurements of the composite correlation function for different luminosity (circles) and stellar mass (squares) subsamples selected from the VUDS survey in the redshift range 2 < z < 3.5. For clarity, offsets are applied to both the data points and best-fitting curves of the w_p (r_p), i.e. the values of w_p(r_p) and associated best fits for the galaxy subsamples with increasing luminosity and stellar masses were staggered by 0.5 dex each.