Galaxy and mass assembly (GAMA): projected galaxy clustering

We measure the projected two-point correlation function of galaxies in the 180 deg(2) equatorial regions of the GAMA II survey, for four different redshift slices between z = 0.0 and 0.5. To do this, we further develop the Cole method of producing suitable random catalogues for the calculation of correlation functions. We find that more r-band luminous, more massive and redder galaxies are more clustered. We also find that red galaxies have stronger clustering on scales less than similar to 3 h(-1) Mpc. We compare to two different versions of the GALFORM galaxy formation model, Lacey et al. (in preparation) and Gonzalez-Perez et al., and find that the models reproduce the trend of stronger clustering for more massive galaxies. However, the models underpredict the clustering of blue galaxies, can incorrectly predict the correlation function on small scales and underpredict the clustering in our sample of galaxies with similar to 3L(r)*. We suggest possible avenues to explore to improve these clustering predictions. The measurements presented in this paper can be used to test other galaxy formation models, and we make the measurements available online to facilitate this.