Faint K-selected galaxy correlations and clustering evolution

Angular and spatial correlations are measured for K-band-selected galaxies, 248 having redshifts and 54 with z > 1, in two patches of combined area similar or equal to 27 arcmin(2). The angular correlation for K less than or equal to 21.5 mag is omega(theta) similar or equal to (theta/1.4 '' +/- 0.19 '' e(+/-0.1))(-0.8). From the redshift sample we find that the real-space correlation, calculated with q(0) = 0.1, of M-K less than or equal to -23.5 mag galaxies (k-corrected) is xi(r)=(r/2.9e(+/-0.12) h(-1) Mpc)(-1.8) at a mean z similar or equal to 0.34, (r/2.0e(+/-0.15) h(-1) Mpc)(-1.8) at z similar or equal to 0.62, (r/1.4e(+/-0.15) h(-1) Mpc)(-1.8) at z similar or equal to 0.97, and (r/1.0e(+/-0.2) h(-1) Mpc)(-1.8) at z similar or equal to 1.39, the last being a formal upper limit for a blue-biased sample. In general, these are more correlated than optically selected samples in the same redshift ranges. Over the interval 0.3 less than or equal to z less than or equal to 0.9, galaxies with red rest-frame colors, (U-K)(0) > 2 AB magnitude, have xi(r)similar or equal to(r/2.4e(+/-0.14) h(-1) Mpc)(-1.8) whereas bluer galaxies, which have a mean B of 23.7 mag and mean [O II] equivalent width W-eq = 41 Angstrom, are very weakly correlated, with xi(r) similar or equal to (r/0.9e(+/-0.22) h(-1) Mpc)(-1.8). For our measured growth rate of clustering, this blue population, if nonmerging, can grow only into a low-redshift population less luminous than 0.4L*. The cross-correlation of low- and high-luminosity galaxies at z similar or equal to 0.6 appears to have an excess in the correlation amplitude within 100 h(-1) kpc. The slow redshift evolution is consistent with these galaxies tracing the mass clustering in a low-density, Omega similar or equal to 0.2, relatively unbiased, sigma(8) similar or equal to 0.8, universe, but we cannot yet exclude other possibilities.