The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey: measuring the cosmic growth rate with
  the two-point galaxy correlation function
  The growth history of large-scale structure in the Universe is a powerful
probe of the cosmological model, including the nature of dark energy. We study
the growth rate of cosmic structure to redshift $z = 0.9$ using more than
$162{,}000$ galaxy redshifts from the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey. We divide the
data into four redshift slices with effective redshifts $z =
[0.2,0.4,0.6,0.76]$ and in each of the samples measure and model the 2-point
galaxy correlation function in parallel and transverse directions to the
line-of-sight. After simultaneously fitting for the galaxy bias factor we
recover values for the cosmic growth rate which are consistent with our assumed
$\Lambda$CDM input cosmological model, with an accuracy of around 20% in each
redshift slice. We investigate the sensitivity of our results to the details of
the assumed model and the range of physical scales fitted, making close
comparison with a set of N-body simulations for calibration. Our measurements
are consistent with an independent power-spectrum analysis of a similar
dataset, demonstrating that the results are not driven by systematic errors. We
determine the pairwise velocity dispersion of the sample in a non-parametric
manner, showing that it systematically increases with decreasing redshift, and
investigate the Alcock-Paczynski effects of changing the assumed fiducial model
on the results. Our techniques should prove useful for current and future
galaxy surveys mapping the growth rate of structure using the 2-dimensional
correlation function.
