Evidence for merging or disruption of red galaxies from the evolution of their clustering

The formation and evolution of massive red galaxies form a crucial test of theories of galaxy formation based on hierarchical assembly. In this letter we use observations of the clustering of luminous red galaxies from the Bootes field and N-body simulations to argue that about 1/3 of the most luminous satellite galaxies appear to undergo merging or disruption within massive halos between z~0.9 and z~0.5.