The merger rate of massive galaxies

Details The merger rate of massive galaxies The merger rate of massive galaxies

2006-02-02

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0602038v2

Astrophys.J.652:270-276,2006

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

ApJ, in press. 8 pages, 3 figures. Expanded discussion section with explicit discussion of merger fraction vs. close pair frac

Scientific paper

10.1086/508408

We calculate the projected two point correlation function for samples of luminous and massive galaxies in the COMBO-17 photometric redshift survey, focusing particularly on the amplitude of the correlation function at small projected radii and exploring the constraints such measurements can place on the galaxy merger rate. For nearly volume-limited samples with 0.42.5e10 M_sun is 5+/-1%. Incorporating close pair fractions from the literature, the 2dFGRS and the SDSS, we find a fairly rapid evolution of the merger fraction of massive galaxies between z=0.8 and the present day. Assuming that the major merger timescale is of order the dynamical timescale for close massive galaxy pairs, we tentatively infer that ~50% (70%) of all galaxies with present-day masses M_*>5e10 M_sun (remnants of mergers between galaxies with M_*>2.5e10 M_sun) have undergone a major merger since z=0.8(1): major mergers between massive galaxies are a significant driver of galaxy evolution over the last eight billion years.

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