MOIRCS deep survey. II. Clustering Properties of K-band selected galaxies in GOODS-North Region

We present the first measurement of clustering properties of low-mass galaxies with a stellar mass down to M* ∼ 10⁹ M⊙ at 1 < z <4 in 24.4 arcmin² of the GOODS-North region with a depth of K_AB ∼ 25. Luminous galaxies in the K-band have a larger correlation length than faint galaxies. For color-selected samples at 2 < z < 4, distant red galaxies with J - K > 1.3 show a large bias of b ∼ 7.2 ± 1.3 on scales of up to θ ∼ 100″ or 3.1 comoving Mpc, while blue galaxies with 0.5 < J - K < 1.3 have a weak clustering signal on large scales, but a possible strong small-scale excess at θ < 10″. For massive galaxies with M* ≳ 10¹⁰ M⊙, we estimate the correlation length and bias to be r₀ ∼ 4.5h ^-1 Mpc and b - 1.9-3.5, which are much larger than those of low-mass (M* ∼ 10⁹-10¹⁰ M⊙) galaxies. The comparison of our measurements with analytic CDM models constrains the properties of hosting dark halos, and indicates that the low-mass galaxies would be progenitors of galaxies with a typical luminosity of L ≲ L* in the local Universe. The blue galaxies in low-mass samples are more strongly clustered in more massive halos with higher occupation numbers than low-mass red galaxies. This fact suggests an environment effect due to the halo mass on the star-formation activity at high-z.