The Intermediate‐Scale Clustering of Luminous Red Galaxies

We report the intermediate-scale (0.3 to 40 Mpc/h) clustering of 35,000luminous early-type galaxies at redshifts 0.16 to 0.44 from the Sloan DigitalSky Survey. We present the redshift-space two-point correlation function\xi(s), the projected correlation function w_p(r_p), and the deprojectedreal-space correlation function \xi(r), for approximately volume-limitedsamples. As expected, the galaxies are highly clustered, with the correlationlength varying from 9.8 +/- 0.2 Mpc/h to 11.2 +/- 0.2 Mpc/h, dependent on thespecific luminosity range. For the -23.2 < Mg < -21.2 sample, the inferred biasrelative to that of L* galaxies is 1.84 +/- 0.11 for 1 Mpc/h < r_p < 10 Mpc/h,with yet stronger clustering on smaller scales. We detect luminosity-dependentbias within the sample but see no evidence for redshift evolution between z=0.2and z=0.4. We find a clear indication for deviations from a power-law in thereal-space correlation function, with a dip at ~ 2 Mpc/h scales and an upturnon smaller scales. The precision measurements of these clustering trends offernew avenues for the study of the formation and evolution of these massivegalaxies.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures. Accepted to the Astrophysical Journa