The VVDS: Early Results on the Large Scale Structure Distribution of Galaxies out to z~1.5

Abstract

The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey (VVDS) is an on-going program to map the evolution of galaxies, large scale structures and AGNs from the redshift measurement of more than 100000 objects down to a magnitude I _AB =24, in combination with a multi-wavelength dataset from radio to X-rays. We present here the first results obtained from more than 20000 spectra. Dedicated effort has been invested to successfully enter the “redshift desert” 1.5<z<3, by producing high S/N galaxy templates in the rest wavelength domain probed by VIMOS. We have produced the luminosity function (LF) of galaxies for the first time out to I _AB =24, and the evolution of the LF for each morphological type is clearly established, indicating that most of the LF evolution is concentrated in the later types. We present for the first time the 3D spatial distribution of a well controlled sample of faint galaxies, and show that significant clustering is detected out to z~1.5.