We present new measurements of the quasar angular autocorrelation function from a sample of \sim 80,000 photometrically-classified quasars taken from the First Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey .
We find a best-fit model of \omega ( \theta ) = ( 0.066 \pm ^ { 0.026 } _ { 0.024 } ) \theta ^ { - ( 0.98 \pm 0.15 ) } for the angular correlation function , consistent with estimates of the slope from spectroscopic quasar surveys .
We show that only models with little or no evolution in the clustering of quasars in comoving coordinates since a median redshift of z \sim 1.4 can recover a scale-length consistent with local galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei ( AGNs ) .
A model with little evolution of quasar clustering in comoving coordinates is best explained in the current cosmological paradigm by rapid evolution in quasar bias .
We show that quasar biasing must have changed from b _ { Q } \sim 3 at a ( photometric ) redshift of \bar { z } _ { phot } = 2.2 to b _ { Q } \sim 1.2 - 1.3 by \bar { z } _ { phot } = 0.75 .
Such a rapid increase with redshift in biasing implies that quasars at z \sim 2 can not be the progenitors of modern L ^ { * } objects , rather they must now reside in dense environments , such as clusters .
Similarly , the duration of the UVX quasar phase must be short enough to explain why local UVX quasars reside in essentially unbiased structures .
Our estimates of b _ { Q } are in good agreement with recent spectroscopic results ( 14 ) , which demonstrate that the implied evolution in b _ { Q } is consistent with quasars inhabiting halos of similar mass at every redshift .
Treating quasar clustering as a bivariate function of both redshift and luminosity , we find no evidence for luminosity dependence in quasar clustering , and that redshift evolution thus affects quasar clustering more than changes in quasars ’ luminosity .
Our results are robust against a range of systematic uncertainties .
We provide a new method for quantifying stellar contamination in photometrically-classified quasar catalogs via the correlation function .