The merger history of massive spheroids since z~1 is size independent

Abstract

Using a compilation of 379 massive (stellar mass M > 10^{11} M_Sun) spheroid-like galaxies from the near-infrared Palomar/DEEP-2 survey, we have probed, up to z~1, whether the presence of companions depends on the size of the host galaxies. We have explored the presence of companions with mass ratios down to 1:10 and 1:100, with respect to the central massive galaxy, and within a projected distance of 30, 50 and 100 kpc of these objects. We find evidence for these companions being equally distributed around both compact and extended massive spheroids. This finding suggests that, at least since z~1, the merger activity in these objects is rather homogeneous across the whole population and its merger history is not affected for the size of the host galaxy. Our result could indicate that both compact and extended massive spheroid-like galaxies are growing in size at the same rate.

9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Larger sizes of massive quiescent early-type galaxies in clusters than in the field at 0.8 < z < 1.5
• The ALHAMBRA survey: Accurate merger fractions by PDF analysis of photometric close pairs
• Stellar populations of galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey up to $z\sim 1$. IV. Properties of quiescent galaxies on the stellar mass$-$size plane
• Satellite galaxies around present-day massive ellipticals
• The abundance of satellites depends strongly on the morphology of the host galaxy
• Stellar populations of galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey up to $z\sim 1$. III. The stellar content of the quiescent galaxy population during the last $8$ Gyr