The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Evolution of Close Galaxy Pairs and Major-Merger Rates up to z ~ 1.2^*

Lihwai Lin^1,2, David C. Koo², Christopher N. A. Willmer^2,3, David R. Patton⁴, Christopher J. Conselice⁵, Renbin Yan⁶, Alison L. Coil⁶, Michael C. Cooper⁶, Marc Davis^6,7, S. M. Faber², Brian F. Gerke⁷, Puragra Guhathakurta², and Jeffrey A. Newman⁸

Published 2004 November 17 • © 2004. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 617, Number 1 Citation Lihwai Lin et al 2004 ApJ 617 L9 DOI 10.1086/427183

Download Article PDF View article

Article metrics

883 Total downloads
Video abstract views

Permissions

Get permission to re-use this article

Author affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan

² University of California Observatories/Lick Observatory, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064

³ On leave from Observatório Nacional, Brazil

⁴ Department of Physics, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8, Canada

⁵ Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125

⁶ Department of Astronomy, University of California at Berkeley, 601 Campbell Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411

⁷ Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, 366 LeConte Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-7300

⁸ Hubble Fellow; Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720

Dates

Received 2004 August 21
Accepted 2004 November 3
Published 2004 November 17

Journal RSS

Create or edit your corridor alerts

What are corridors?

Abstract

We derive the close, kinematic pair fraction and merger rate up to redshift z ~ 1.2 from the initial data of the DEEP2 Redshift Survey. Assuming a mild luminosity evolution, the number of companions per luminous galaxy is found to evolve as (1 + z)^m, with m = 0.51 ± 0.28; assuming no evolution, m = 1.60 ± 0.29. Our results imply that only 9% of present-day L* galaxies have undergone major mergers since z ~ 1.2 and that the average major merger rate is about 4 × 10^-4 h³ Mpc^-3 Gyr^-1 for z ~ 0.5-1.2. Most previous studies have yielded higher values.

Export citation and abstract BibTeX RIS

Previous article in issue

Next article in issue

Footnotes

*
Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.

Please wait… references are loading.