MEASUREMENT OF GALAXY CLUSTERING AT z ∼ 7.2 AND THE EVOLUTION OF GALAXY BIAS FROM 3.8 < z < 8 IN THE XDF, GOODS-S, AND GOODS-N

Lyman-break galaxy (LBG) samples observed during reionization (z ≳ 6) with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 are reaching sizes sufficient to characterize their clustering properties. Using a combined catalog from the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field and CANDELS surveys, containing N = 743 LBG candidates at z ≥ 6.5 at a mean redshift of z-bar =7.2, we detect a clear clustering signal in the angular correlation function (ACF) at ≳ 4σ, corresponding to a real-space correlation length r{sub 0}=6.7{sub −1.0}{sup +0.9}h{sup −1}cMpc. The derived galaxy bias b=8.6{sub −1.0}{sup +0.9} is that of dark matter halos of M=10{sup 11.1{sub −}{sub 0}{sub .}{sub 3}{sup +{sup 0{sup .{sup 2}}}}} M{sub ⊙} at z = 7.2, and highlights that galaxies below the current detection limit (M{sub AB} ∼ –17.7) are expected in lower-mass halos (M ∼ 10{sup 8}-10{sup 10.5} M{sub ⊙} ). We compute the ACF of LBGs at z ∼ 3.8 – z ∼ 5.9 in the same surveys. A trend of increasing bias is found from z-bar =3.8 (b ∼ 3.0) to z-bar =7.2 (b ∼ 8.6), broadly consistent with galaxies at fixed luminosity being hosted in dark matter halos of similar mass at 4 ≲ z ≲ 6, followedmore » by a slight rise in halo masses at z ≳ 7 (∼2σ confidence). Separating the data at the median luminosity of the z-bar =7.2 sample (M {sub UV} = –19.4) shows higher clustering at z-bar =5.9 for bright galaxies (r{sub 0}=5.5{sub −1.6}{sup +1.4}h{sup −1}cMpc, b=6.2{sub −1.5}{sup +1.2}) compared to faint galaxies (r{sub 0}=1.9{sub −1.0}{sup +1.1}h{sup −1}cMpc, b=2.7{sub −1.2}{sup +1.2}) implying a constant mass-to-light ratio (dlogM/dlogL)∼1.2{sub −0.8}{sup +1.8}. A similar trend is present in the z-bar =7.2 sample with larger uncertainty. Finally, our bias measurements allow us to investigate the fraction of dark matter halos hosting UV-bright galaxies (the duty cycle, e{sub DC}). At z-bar =7.2 values near unity are preferred, which may be explained by the shortened halo assembly time at high redshift.« less