Galaxy Clustering in Early Sloan Digital Sky Survey Redshift Data

We present the first measurements of clustering in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey(SDSS) galaxy redshift survey. Our sample consists of 29,300 galaxies with redshifts 5700 km s-1 ≤ cz ≤ 39,000 km s-1, distributed in several long but narrow (25-5°) segments, covering 690 deg2. For the full, flux-limitedsample, the redshift-space correlation length is approximately 8 h-1 Mpc. The two-dimensional correlation functionξ(rp,π) shows clear signatures of both the small-scale, fingers-of-God distortion caused by velocity dispersionsin collapsed objects and the large-scale compression caused by coherent flows, though the latter cannot be measured with high precision in the present sample. The inferred real-space correlation functionis well described by a power law, ξ(r) = (r/6.1 ± 0.2 h-1 Mpc)-1.75±0.03, for 0.1 h-1 Mpc ≤ r ≤ 16 h-1 Mpc. The galaxy pairwise velocity dispersionis σ12 ≈ 600 ± 100 km s-1 for projected separations 0.15 h-1 Mpc ≤ rp ≤ 5 h-1 Mpc. When we divide the sample by color, the red galaxies exhibit a stronger and steeper real-space correlation functionand a higher pairwise velocity dispersionthan do the blue galaxies. The relative behavior of subsamples defined by high/low profile concentration or high/low surface brightnessis qualitatively similar to that of the red/blue subsamples. Our most striking result is a clear measurement of scale-independent luminosity bias at r 10 h-1 Mpc: subsamples with absolute magnituderanges centered on M* - 1.5, M*, and M* + 1.5 have real-space correlation functionsthat are parallel power laws of slope ≈-1.8 with correlation lengths of approximately 7.4, 6.3, and 4.7 h-1 Mpc, respectively.