The VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey

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 () of the survey allows us to measure the projected two-point correlation function of galaxies, , for a set of volume-limited samples up to an effective redshift and median absolute magnitude . Fitting with a single power-law model for the real-space correlation function , we measure the relationship of the correlation length r0 and the slope γ with the sample median luminosity for the first time at such high redshift. Values from our lower-redshift samples () are fully consistent with the trend observed by larger local surveys. In our high redshift sample (), we find that the clustering strength suddenly rises around , apparently with a sharper inflection than at low redshifts. Galaxies in the faintest sample () have a correlation length h-1 Mpc, compared to h-1 Mpc at . The slope of the correlation function is observed to correspondingly steepen significantly from to . 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 with respect to . At our effective median redshift this corresponds to a strong difference of the relative bias, from for galaxies with to for galaxies with .