Galaxy Pairs in COSMOS -- Merger Rate Evolution Since z=1

Abstract

We present results of a statistical study of the cosmic evolution of the mass dependent major-merger rate since z=1. A stellar mass limited sample of close major-merger pairs (the CPAIR sample) was selected from the archive of the COSMOS survey. Pair fractions at different redshifts derived using the CPAIR sample and a local K-band selected pair sample show no significant variations with stellar mass. The pair fraction exhibits moderately strong cosmic evolution, with the best-fitting evolutionary index m=2.2+-0.2. The best-fitting function for the merger rate implies that galaxies with stellar mass between 1E+10 -- 3E+11 M_sun have undergone 0.5 -- 1.5 major-mergers since z=1. Our results show that, for massive galaxies at z<1, major mergers involving star forming galaxies (i.e. wet and mixed mergers) can account for the formation of both ellipticals and red quiescent galaxies (RQGs). On the other hand, major mergers cannot be responsible for the formation of most low mass ellipticals and RQGs. Our quantitative estimates indicate that major mergers have significant impact on the stellar mass assembly of the most massive galaxies, but for less massive galaxies the stellar mass assembly is dominated by the star formation. Comparison with the mass dependent (U)LIRG rates suggests that the frequency of major-merger events is comparable to or higher than that of (U)LIRGs.

18 pages, accepted by ApJ

References in corpus (23)

• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) -- Overview
• COSMOS Photometric Redshifts with 30-bands for 2-deg2
• A Semi-Analytic Model for the Co-evolution of Galaxies, Black Holes, and Active Galactic Nuclei
• zCOSMOS: A Large VLT/VIMOS redshift survey covering 0 < z < 3 in the COSMOS field
• Galaxy Zoo: the dependence of morphology and colour on environment
• The Importance of Satellite Quenching for the Build-Up of the Red Sequence of Present Day Galaxies
• Weak Gravitational Lensing with COSMOS: Galaxy Selection and Shape Measurements
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: II. Formation of Red Ellipticals
• A fitting formula for the merger timescale of galaxies in hierarchical clustering
• The Redshift Evolution of Wet, Dry, and Mixed Galaxy Mergers from Close Galaxy Pairs in the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey
• Star Formation and the Growth of Stellar Mass
• A calibration of the relation between the abundance of close galaxy pairs and the rate of galaxy mergers
• The Structures of Distant Galaxies - III: The Merger History of over 20,000 Massive Galaxies at z < 1.2
• The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: The connection between close pairs and asymmetry; implications for the galaxy merger rate
• The Luminosity Dependence of the Galaxy Merger Rate
• The effects of environment on morphological evolution between 0<z<1.2 in the COSMOS Survey
• The contribution of star formation and merging to stellar mass buildup in galaxies
• Simulating the COSMOS: The fraction of merging galaxies at high redshift
• Clustering properties of galaxies selected in stellar mass: Breaking down the link between luminous and dark matter in massive galaxies from z=0 to z=2
• The VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey. The dependence of clustering on galaxy stellar mass at z~1
• Towards a robust estimate of the merger rate evolution using near-IR photometry
• Feeding your Inflaton: Non-Gaussian Signatures of Interaction Structure

Cited by in corpus (93)

• The merger rate of galaxies in the Illustris Simulation: a comparison with observations and semi-empirical models
• The ATLAS${}^{3D}$ project - XXV: Two-dimensional kinematic analysis of simulated galaxies and the cosmological origin of fast and slow rotators
• The Dependence of Quenching upon the Inner Structure of Galaxies at 0.5<z< 0.8 in the DEEP2/AEGIS Survey
• Expected properties of the first gravitational wave signal detected with pulsar timing arrays
• Systematic investigation of the expected gravitational wave signal from supermassive black hole binaries in the pulsar timing band
• Effects of Local Environment and Stellar Mass on Galaxy Quenching out to z~3
• Far-infrared Fine-Structure Line Diagnostics of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Galaxy close-pairs, mergers, and the future fate of stellar mass
• Effect of local environment and stellar mass on galaxy quenching and morphology at $0.5<z<2.0$
• The dominant role of mergers in the size evolution of massive early-type galaxies since z ~ 1
• Scattering experiments meet N-body I: a practical recipe for the evolution of massive black hole binaries in stellar environments
• The Dawes Review 1: Kinematic studies of star-forming galaxies across cosmic time
• Resolving the Discrepancy of Galaxy Merger Fraction Measurements at z ~ 0 - 3
• Do the Most Massive Black Holes at $z=2$ Grow via Major Mergers?
• The IMACS Cluster Building Survey: IV. The Log-normal Star Formation History of Galaxies
• A consistent measure of the merger histories of massive galaxies using close-pair statistics I: Major mergers at $z<3.5$
• Dynamical friction and the evolution of Supermassive Black hole Binaries: the final hundred-parsec problem
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Refining the Local Galaxy Merger Rate using Morphological Information
• Fast and slow paths to quiescence: ages and sizes of 400 quiescent galaxies from the LEGA-C survey
• Prospects for gravitational-wave detection and supermassive black hole astrophysics with pulsar timing arrays
• Constraining astrophysical observables of Galaxy and Supermassive Black Hole Binary Mergers using Pulsar Timing Arrays
• The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). Environmental effects shaping the galaxy stellar mass function
• Depleted cores, multi-component fits, and structural parameter relations for luminous early-type galaxies
• The Taipan Galaxy Survey: Scientific Goals and Observing Strategy
• Environmental Dependence of Galaxy Merger Rate in ΛCDM Universe
• Selection bias in dynamically-measured super-massive black hole samples: consequences for pulsar timing arrays
• The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey. IX. Evolution of galaxy merger fraction since z~6
• The Intrinsic Scatter Along The Main Sequence of Star-Forming Galaxies at z ~ 0.7
• Central Stellar Mass Deficits in the Bulges of Local Lenticular Galaxies, and the Connection with Compact z ~ 1.5 Galaxies
• Galaxy Zoo: Quantifying Morphological Indicators of Galaxy Interaction
• The Dynamics of Galaxy Pairs in a Cosmological Setting
• Minor vs Major Mergers: The Stellar Mass Growth of Massive Galaxies from z=3 using Number Density Selection Techniques
• Correlation between Galaxy Mergers and Luminous AGN
• Cosmological simulations of black hole growth II: how (in)significant are merger events for fuelling nuclear activity?
• MASSIV: Mass Assembly Survey with SINFONI in VVDS. V. The major merger rate of star-forming galaxies at 0.9 < z < 1.8 from IFS-based close pairs
• Constraints on the merging channel of massive galaxies since z~1
• Rhapsody. I. Structural Properties and Formation History From a Statistical Sample of Re-simulated Cluster-size Halos
• The ALPINE-ALMA [CII] survey: The contribution of major mergers to the galaxy mass assembly at z~5
• EMERGE: Empirical predictions of galaxy merger rates since $z\sim 6$
• Dynamical evolution of cosmic supermassive binary black holes and their gravitational wave radiation
• Sizing up Partially-Depleted Galaxy Cores
• Constraints on Black Hole/Host Galaxy Co-evolution and Binary Stalling Using Pulsar Timing Arrays
• The ALHAMBRA survey: Accurate merger fractions by PDF analysis of photometric close pairs
• A remarkably large depleted core in the Abell 2029 BCG IC 1101
• Missing black holes in brightest cluster galaxies as evidence for the occurrence of superkicks in nature
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Galaxy Pair Fraction and Correlated Active Galactic Nuclei
• A quasar-based supermassive black hole binary population model: implications for the gravitational-wave background
• Herschel Observations of Major Merger Pairs at z=0: Dust Mass and Star Formation
• Galaxy Zoo: major galaxy mergers are not a significant quenching pathway
• Probing the assembly history and dynamical evolution of massive black hole binaries with pulsar timing arrays
• Statistics of galaxy mergers: bridging the gap between theory and observation
• A scaling relation between merger rate of galaxies and their close pair count
• CO observations of major merger pairs at z=0: Molecular gas mass and star formation
• A significant excess in major merger rate for AGNs with the highest Eddington ratios at z<0.2
• Cosmic Evolution of Star-Formation Enhancement in Close Major-Merger Galaxy Pairs Since z = 1
• Semi-Analytic Galaxies - II. Revealing the role of environmental and mass quenching in galaxy formation
• No tension between assembly models of supermassive black hole binaries and pulsar observations
• The Impact of Merging on The Origin of Kinematically Misaligned and Counter-rotating Galaxies in MaNGA
• The XMM deep survey in the CDF-S II. a 9-20 keV selection of heavily obscured active galaxies at z>1.7
• Evolution of the Major Merger Galaxy Pair Fraction at z < 1
• Stellar populations of galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey up to $z\sim 1$. IV. Properties of quiescent galaxies on the stellar mass$-$size plane
• Towards a consistent framework of comparing galaxy mergers in observations and simulations
• The IMACS Cluster Building Survey. III. The Star Formation Histories of Field Galaxies
• Living with Neighbors. I. Observational Clues to Hydrodynamic Impact of Neighboring Galaxies on Star Formation
• Merging Galaxies with Tidal Tails in COSMOS to z=1
• HI Observations of Major-Merger Pairs at z = 0: atomic gas and star formation
• A declining major merger fraction with redshift in the local Universe from the largest-yet catalog of major and minor mergers in SDSS
• Quenching or Bursting: the Role of Stellar Mass, Environment, and Specific Star Formation Rate to $z$ $\sim$ 1
• The ALHAMBRA survey: an empirical estimation of the cosmic variance for merger fraction studies based on close pairs
• Evolution Of Massive Black Hole Binaries In Rotating Stellar Nuclei: Implications For Gravitational Wave Detection
• Long Tidal Tails in Merging Galaxies and Their Implications
• Living with Neighbors. II. Statistical Analysis of Flybys and Mergers of Dark Matter Halos in Cosmological Simulations
• The buildup of galaxies and their spheroids: the contributions of mergers, disc instabilities and star formation
• Scaling relations for globular cluster systems in early-type galaxies. II. Is there an environmental dependence?
• The nuclear activity and central structure of the elliptical galaxy NGC 5322
• Feedback and feeding in the context of galaxy evolution with SPICA: direct characterization of molecular outflows and inflows
• ALMA [CII] 158um imaging of an HI-Selected Major Merger at z~4
• Metallicity and Age of the Stellar Stream Around the Disk Galaxy NGC 5907
• 3D-DASH: The Widest Near-Infrared Hubble Space Telescope Survey
• On the complementarity of pulsar timing and space laser interferometry for the individual detection of supermassive black hole binaries
• The Abundance of X-Shaped Radio Sources: Implications for the Gravitational Wave Background
• Close Major Merger Pairs at $z=0$: Bulge-to-Total Ratio and Star Formation Enhancement
• Probing the Delay Time of Supermassive Black Hole Binary Mergers With Gravitational Waves
• Evolution of the galaxy merger fraction in the CLAUDS+HSC-SSP deep fields
• Spectroscopically Identified Emission Line Galaxy Pairs in the WISP survey
• Halo Growth and Merger Rates as a Cosmological Test
• Galaxy pairs in The Three Hundred simulations: a study on the performance of observational pair-finding techniques
• COSMOS2020: Disentangling the Role of Mass and Environment in Star Formation Activity of Galaxies at $0.4<z<4$
• Galaxy pairs in The Three Hundred simulations II: studying bound ones and identifying them via machine learning
• The galaxy luminosity function in the LAMOST Complete Spectroscopic Survey of Pointing Area at the Southern Galactic Cap
• Dynamically close galaxy pairs from the unWISE survey: Testing the merger-AGN-star formation connection
• Size-Mass Relation Shows Its Colours: Contrasting Physical Imprints of Galaxy Evolution in Rest-Frame UV and Optical
• The intriguing life of star-forming galaxies in the redshift range 1 < z < 2 using MASSIV