2005ApJ...619..697A

We analyzed the spatial distribution of 28,500 photometrically selected galaxies with magnitude 23.5<R_AB<25.5 and redshift 1.4<z<3.5 in 21 fields with a total area of 0.81 deg². The galaxies were divided into three subsamples, with mean redshifts z{d1}=1.7, 2.2, and 2.9, according to their U_nGR colors. Combining the galaxies' measured angular clustering with redshift distributions inferred from 1600 spectroscopic redshifts, we find comoving correlation lengths at the three redshifts of r₀=4.5±0.6, 4.2±0.5, and 4.0±0.6 h^–1 Mpc, respectively, and infer a roughly constant correlation function slope of γ=1.6±0.1. We derive similar numbers from the 1600 object spectroscopic sample itself with a new statistic, K, that is insensitive to many possible systematics. Galaxies that are bright in R (λ_rest∼1500-2500 Å) cluster more strongly than fainter galaxies at z=2.9 and 2.2 but not, apparently, at z=1.7. Comparison to a numerical simulation that is consistent with recent WMAP observations suggests that galaxies in our samples are associated with dark matter halos of mass 10^11.2-10^11.8 (z=2.9), 10^11.8-10^12.2 (z=2.2), and 10^11.9-10^12.3 M_☉(z=1.7) and that a small fraction of the halos contain more than one galaxy that satisfies our selection criteria. Adding recent observations of galaxy clustering at z∼0 and ∼1 to the simulation results, we conclude that the typical object in our samples will evolve into an elliptical galaxy by redshift z=0 and will already have an early-type spectrum by redshift z=1. We comment briefly on the implied relationship between galaxies in our survey and those selected with other techniques.