Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21522908l&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #229.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.577
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
A key obstacle to measuring the galaxy merger rate and its role in galaxy evolution is the difficulty in constraining the merger properties and time-scales from instantaneous snapshots of the real universe. We present realistic estimates of the merger observability timescales from a large suite of galaxy merger simulations which have been processed through the Monte-Carlo radiative transfer code SUNRISE. With the resulting images, we examine the dependence of quantitative morphology (Gini-M20/asymmetry) and projected galaxy pair separation on merger stage, dust, viewing angle, orbital parameters, gas properties, and mass ratio. We find that the different approaches to identifying galaxy mergers are sensitive to different merger mass ratios and gas fractions. Therefore, by comparing the frequency of mergers identified by different approaches, we can place quantitative estimates on the minor v. major and gas-rich v. gas-poor merger rates. Finally, we will discuss the challenges for identifying galaxy mergers at z 2, where our standard assumptions about galaxy morphology may break down.
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