The redshift evolution of the galaxy two-point correlation function is a fundamental cosmological statistic .
To identify similar galaxy populations at different redshifts , we select a strict volume-limited sample culled from the 6100 cataloged CNOC2 galaxies .
Our high-luminosity subsample selects galaxies having k-corrected and evolution-compensated R luminosities , M _ { R } ^ { k,e } , above -20 mag ( H _ { 0 } = 100 { km s ^ { -1 } Mpc ^ { -1 } } ) where M _ { \ast } ^ { k,e } ( { R } ) \simeq - 20.3 mag .
This subsample contains about 2300 galaxies distributed between redshifts 0.1 and 0.65 spread over a total of 1.55 square degrees of sky .
A similarly defined low-redshift sample is drawn from the Las Campanas Redshift Survey .
We find that the co-moving two-point correlation function can be described as \xi ( r|z ) = ( r _ { 00 } / r ) ^ { \gamma } ( 1 + z ) ^ { - ( 3 + \epsilon - \gamma ) } with r _ { 00 } = 5.03 \pm 0.08 { h ^ { -1 } \hbox { Mpc } } , \epsilon = -0.17 \pm 0.18 and \gamma = 1.87 \pm 0.07 over the z = 0.03 to 0.65 redshift range , for \Omega _ { M } = 0.2 , \Lambda = 0 .
The measured clustering amplitude and its evolution are dependent on the adopted cosmology .
The measured evolution rates for \Omega _ { M } = 1 and flat \Omega _ { M } = 0.2 background cosmologies are \epsilon = 0.80 \pm 0.22 and \epsilon = -0.81 \pm 0.19 , respectively , with r _ { 00 } of 5.30 \pm 0.1 { h ^ { -1 } \hbox { Mpc } } and 4.85 \pm 0.1 { h ^ { -1 } \hbox { Mpc } } , respectively .
The sensitivity of the derived correlations to the evolution corrections and details of the measurements is presented .
The analytic prediction of biased clustering evolution for only the low density , \Lambda CDM cosmology is readily consistent with the observations , with biased clustering in an open cosmology somewhat marginally excluded and a biased \Omega _ { M } = 1 model predicting clustering evolution that is more than 6 standard deviations from the measured value .