Red Galaxy Clustering in the NOAO Deep Wide‐Field Survey

We have measured the clustering of z<0.9 red galaxies and constrained modelsof the evolution of large-scale structure using the initial 1.2 sq. degree datarelease of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS). The area and BwRI passbandsof the NDWFS allow samples of >1000 galaxies to be selected as a function ofspectral type, absolute magnitude, and photometric redshift. Spectral synthesismodels can be used to predict the colors and luminosities of a galaxypopulation as a function of redshift. We have used PEGASE2 models, withexponentially declining star formation rates, to estimate the observed colorsand luminosity evolution of galaxies and to connect, as an evolutionarysequence, related populations of galaxies at different redshifts. A red galaxysample, with present-day rest-frame Vega colors of Bw-R>1.44, was chosen toallow comparisons with the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey and Sloan Digital SkySurvey. We find the spatial clustering of red galaxies to be a strong functionof luminosity, with r0 increasing from 4.4+/-0.4 Mpc/h at M_R=-20 to 11.2+/-1.0Mpc/h at M_R=-22. Clustering evolution measurements using samples where therest-frame selection criteria vary with redshift, including all deepsingle-band magnitude limited samples, are biased due to the correlation ofclustering with rest-frame color and luminosity. The clustering of M_R=-21,Bw-R>1.44 galaxies exhibits no significant evolution over the redshift rangeobserved with r0= 6.3+/-0.5 Mpc/h in comoving coordinates. This is consistentwith recent LCDM models where the bias of L* galaxies undergoes rapid evolutionand r0 evolves very slowly at z<2.Comment: 34 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for Publication in ApJ. Selection criteria for one of the red galaxy samples have been revise