Year: 2008
Type: preprint
Abstract: We explore the history and impact of galaxy mergers and interactions over z~0.24 to 0.80, based on HST ACS, Combo-17, and Spitzer 24 mu data of ~4500 galaxies in the GEMS survey. Using visual and quantitative parameters,we identify galaxies with strong distortions indicative of recent strong interactions and mergers versus normal galaxies (E/S0, Sa, Sb-Sc, Sd/Irr). Our results are: (1) The observed fraction F of strongly disturbed systems among high mass (M>=2.5E10 Msun) galaxies is ~9% to 12% in every Gyr bin over z~0.24 to 0.80. The corresponding merger rate is a few times 10^-4 galaxies Gyr-1 Mpc-3. The fraction F shows fair agreement with the merger fraction of mass ratio >=1:10 predicted by several LCDM-based simulations. (2) For M>=1E9 Msun systems, the average star formation rate (SFR) of strongly disturbed systems is only modestly enhanced with respect to normal galaxies, in agreement with recent simulations. In fact, over z~0.24 to 0.80, strongly disturbed systems only account for a small fraction (
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Jogee, S., Miller, S., Penner, K., Bell, E. F., Conselice, C., Skelton, R. E., Somerville, R., Rix, H-W., Barazza, F. D., Barden, M., Borch, A., Beckwith, S. V., Caldwell, J. A., Haussler, B., Heymans, C., Jahnke, K., McIntosh, D., Meisenheimer, K., Papovich, C., Peng, C., Robaina, A., Sanchez, S., Wisotzki, L., Wolf, C.
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1541362068