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The role of galaxy merging in the life of massive galaxies

Authors :
Allison Man
Sune Toft
Source :
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union. 11:306-308
Publication Year :
2015
Publisher :
Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2015.

Abstract

The role of galaxy mergers in the evolution of massive galaxies remains debated. While deep near-infrared surveys have enabled several independent merger rate measurements out to z~3, they are limited to small samples and results are discrepant at z=2–3. In Man et al., we use the UltraVISTA and CANDELS surveys to obtain the largest sample of photometric galaxy pairs at z>1 for measuring the galaxy merger fraction and rate of massive galaxies. We find that the discrepancy of previous studies is due to selection effect. Defining galaxy pairs by stellar mass ratio leads to a flat z-evolution of the merger fraction, while defining by flux ratio leads to an increasing trend. The implications on the evolution of massive galaxies are summarized here.

Details

ISSN :
17439221 and 17439213
Volume :
11
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........948709cb6017c597cdfba46de4f12539
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1017/s1743921316005391