The Edinburgh–Durham Southern Galaxy Catalogue – III. w(θ) from the full survey

Despite many independent estimates, there has been little consensus reached as to the form of the two-point angular correlation function of galaxies. We present the two-point angular correlation function for the recently completed Edinburgh–Durham Southern Galaxy Catalogue. This galaxy survey consists of digitized COSMOS scans for 60 UK Schmidt fields centred at the South Galactic Pole. Both star–galaxy classification errors and photometric errors in plate-to-plate matching, that could ruin a project of this kind, have been kept to a minimum. The catalogue is therefore ideally suited to probe the form of the correlation function on cosmologically interesting scales. We present our w(θ) results from the catalogue at four depths: b_j = 17.5, 18.5, 19.5 and 20.3. These correlation functions all indicate significant power out to scales $$\simeq 30\,{h}^{-1}$$ Mpc. This is in conflict with the result obtained from the analysis of the Lick survey of galaxies and is consistent with recently reported galaxy correlation functions.