Using the University of Hawaii ’ s 8K mosaic camera ( UH8K ) , we have measured the angular correlation function \omega ( \theta ) for 100,000 galaxies distributed over four widely separated fields totalling \sim 1 \deg ^ { 2 } and reaching a limiting magnitude of I _ { AB } ( 3 \sigma, 3 ^ { \prime \prime } ) \sim 25.5 .
This unique combination of areal coverage and depth allows us to investigate the dependence of \omega ( \theta ) at 1 \arcmin , A _ { \omega } ( 1 \arcmin ) , on sample median magnitude in the range 19.5 < I _ { AB - med } < 24 .
Furthermore , our rigorous control of systematic photometric and astrometric errors means that fainter than I _ { AB - med } \sim 22 we measure \omega ( \theta ) on scales of several arc-minutes to an accuracy of 30 \% .
Our results show that A _ { \omega } ( 1 \arcmin ) decreases monotonically to I _ { AB } \sim 25 .
At bright magnitudes , \omega ( \theta ) is consistent with a power-law of slope \delta = -0.8 for 0.2 \arcmin < \theta < 3.0 \arcmin but at fainter magnitudes we detect a slope flattening with \delta \sim - 0.6 .
At the 3 \sigma level , our observations are still consistent with \delta = -0.8 .
We also find a clear dependence of A _ { \omega } ( 1 \arcmin ) on observed ( V - I ) _ { AB } colour .
In the magnitude ranges 18.5 < I _ { AB } < 24.0 and 18.5 < I _ { AB } < 23.0 we find galaxies with 2.6 < ( V - I ) _ { AB } < 2.9 ( the reddest bin we consider ) have A _ { \omega } ( 1 \arcmin ) ’ s which are \sim 10 \times higher than the full field population .
On the basis of their similar colours and clustering properties , we tentatively identify these objects as a superset of the “ extremely red objects ” found through optical-infrared selection .
We demonstrate that our model predictions for the redshift distribution for the faint galaxy population are in good agreement with current spectroscopic observations .
Using these predictions , we find that for low- \Omega cosmologies and assuming a local galaxy correlation length r _ { 0 } = 4.3 h ^ { -1 } Mpc , in the range 19.5 < I _ { AB - med } < 22 , the growth of galaxy clustering ( parameterised by \epsilon ) , is \epsilon \sim 0 .
However , at 22 < I _ { AB - med } < 24.0 , our observations are consistent with \epsilon \gtrsim 1 .
Models with \epsilon \sim 0 can not simultaneously match both bright and faint measurements of A _ { \omega } ( 1 \arcmin ) .
We show how this result is a natural consequence of the “ bias-free ” nature of the “ \epsilon ” formalism and is consistent with the field galaxy population in the range 22.0 < I _ { AB } < 24.0 being dominated by galaxies of low intrinsic luminosity .