EVOLUTION OF THE MAJOR MERGER GALAXY PAIR FRACTION AT<i>z</i>&lt; 1

Keenan, Ryan; Foucaud, S.; Propris, Roberto De; Hsieh, Bau-Ching; Lin, Lihwai; Chou, Richard C. Y.; Huang, Shan; Lin, Jau-Hong; Chang, Kyongae

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/795/2/157

Cited by 29 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…We infer that this population is experiencing a period of central star-formation. These galaxies account for 2.4% of our sample, which corresponds well with the local major merger fraction: also ∼ 2% across a wide range of galaxy masses (see Khochfar & Burkert 2001;Keenan et al 2014, and references therein). At the luminosities of interest, major mergers are mostly mixed elliptical-spiral interactions, and hence gas-rich (see e.g.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Galaxy colour gradients versus colour, structure, and luminosity

Kennedy

Bamford

Häußler

et al. 2016

A&A

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Using single-component fits to SDSS/UKIDSS images of galaxies in the G09 region of the GAMA survey we study radial colour gradients across the galaxy population. We use the multiwavelength information provided by MegaMorph analysis of galaxy light profiles to calculate intrinsic colour gradients, and divide into six subsamples split by overall Sérsic index (n) and galaxy colour. We find a bimodality in the colour gradients of high-and low-n galaxies in all wavebands, which varies with overall galaxy luminosity. Global trends in colour gradients therefore result from combining the contrasting behaviour of a number of different galaxy populations. The ubiquity of strong negative colour gradients supports the picture of inside-out growth through gas accretion for blue, low-n galaxies, and through dry minor mergers for red, high-n galaxies. An exception is the blue high-n population, with properties indicative of dissipative major mergers.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Galaxy colour gradients versus colour, structure, and luminosity

Kennedy

Bamford

Häußler

et al. 2016

A&A

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“…Bridge et al 2010;Lotz et al 2011;Robotham et al 2014;Keenan et al 2014). Studying how the merger mass function, or equivalently the merger fraction as a function of stellar mass, evolves with z is more challenging.…”

Section: Merger Contribution To the Build Up Of The Red Sequencementioning

confidence: 99%

Galaxy Zoo: Major Galaxy Mergers Are Not a Significant Quenching Pathway*

Weigel

Schawinski

Čaplar

et al. 2017

ApJ

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We use stellar mass functions to study the properties and the significance of quenching through major galaxy mergers. In addition to SDSS DR7 and Galaxy Zoo 1 data, we use samples of visually selected major galaxy mergers and post merger galaxies. We determine the stellar mass functions of the stages that we would expect major merger quenched galaxies to pass through on their way from the blue cloud to the red sequence: 1: major merger, 2: post merger, 3: blue early type, 4: green early type and 5: red early type. Based on the similar mass function shapes we conclude that major mergers are likely to form an evolutionary sequence from star formation to quiescence via quenching. Relative to all blue galaxies, the major merger fraction increases as a function of stellar mass. Major merger quenching is inconsistent with the mass and environment quenching model. At z ∼ 0 major merger quenched galaxies are unlikely to constitute the majority of galaxies that transition the green valley. Furthermore, between z ∼ 0 − 0.5 major merger quenched galaxies account for 1 − 5% of all quenched galaxies at a given stellar mass. Major galaxy mergers are therefore not a significant quenching pathway, neither at z ∼ 0 nor within the last 5 Gyr. The majority of red galaxies must have been quenched through an alternative quenching mechanism which causes a slow blue to red evolution.

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“…Even if the pair fraction is thought to be an increasing function of redshift, the range of reported values is almost unconstrained with m = 0 − 5 (e.g. Le Fevre et al 2000;Lin et al 2004Lin et al , 2008Kampczyk et al 2007; Kartaltepe et al 2007;de Ravel et al 2009;Lotz et al 2011, Keenan et al 2014. However, these discrepancies could be decreased when introducing an observability timescale for identifying galaxy mergers (Lotz et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The MUSEHubbleUltra Deep Field Survey

Ventou

Contini

Bouché

et al. 2017

A&A

107

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We provide, for the first time, robust observational constraints on the galaxy major merger fraction up to z ≈ 6 using spectroscopic close pair counts. Deep Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) observations in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) and Hubble Deep Field South (HDF-S) are used to identify 113 secure close pairs of galaxies among a parent sample of 1801 galaxies spread over a large redshift range (0.2 < z < 6) and stellar masses (10 7 − 10 11 M ), thus probing about 12 Gyr of galaxy evolution. Stellar masses are estimated from spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting over the extensive UV-to-NIR HST photometry available in these deep Hubble fields, adding Spitzer IRAC bands to better constrain masses for high-redshift (z 3) galaxies. These stellar masses are used to isolate a sample of 54 major close pairs with a galaxy mass ratio limit of 1:6. Among this sample, 23 pairs are identified at high redshift (z 3) through their Lyα emission. The sample of major close pairs is divided into five redshift intervals in order to probe the evolution of the merger fraction with cosmic time. Our estimates are in very good agreement with previous close pair counts with a constant increase of the merger fraction up to z ≈ 3 where it reaches a maximum of 20%. At higher redshift, we show that the fraction slowly decreases down to about 10% at z ≈ 6. The sample is further divided into two ranges of stellar masses using either a constant separation limit of 10 9.5 M or the median value of stellar mass computed in each redshift bin. Overall, the major close pair fraction for low-mass and massive galaxies follows the same trend. These new, homogeneous, and robust estimates of the major merger fraction since z ≈ 6 are in good agreement with recent predictions of cosmological numerical simulations.

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EVOLUTION OF THE MAJOR MERGER GALAXY PAIR FRACTION ATz< 1

Cited by 29 publications

References 104 publications

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Galaxy colour gradients versus colour, structure, and luminosity

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Galaxy colour gradients versus colour, structure, and luminosity

Galaxy Zoo: Major Galaxy Mergers Are Not a Significant Quenching Pathway*

The MUSEHubbleUltra Deep Field Survey

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