Angular Clustering of Galaxies at 3.6 μm from the SWIRE survey

We present the first analysis of large-scale clustering from the Spitzer Widearea InfraRed Extragalactic legacy survey: SWIRE.We compute the angular correlation function of galaxies selected to have 3.6 μm fluxes brighter than 32 μJy in three fields totaling two square degrees in area. In each field we detect clustering with a high level of significance. The amplitude and slope of the correlation function is consistent between the three fields and is modeled as w(θ) = Aθ1−γ with A = (0.6 ± 0.3) × 10−3, γ = 2.03 ± 0.10. With a fixed slope of γ = 1.8, we obtain an amplitude of A = (1.7±0.1)×10−3. Assuming an equivalent depth of K ≈ 18.7 mag we find our errors are smaller but our results are consistent with existing clustering measurements in K-band surveys and with stable clustering models. We estimate our median redshift z ≃ 0.75 and this allows us to obtain an estimate of the three-dimensional correlation function ξ(r), for which we find r0 = 4.4 ± 0.1h−1 Mpc.