The Zurich Environmental Study (ZENS) of Galaxies in Groups along the Cosmic Web. V. Properties and Frequency of Merging Satellites and Centrals in Different Environments

Abstract

We use the Zurich ENvironmental Study (ZENS) database to investigate the environmental dependence of the merger fraction $\Gamma$ and merging galaxy properties in a sample of ~1300 group galaxies with $M>10^{9.2}{M}_{\odot }$ and 0.05<z<0.0585. In all galaxy mass bins investigated in our study, we find that $\Gamma$ decreases by a factor of ~2-3 in groups with halo masses $M_{HALO}>10^{13.5}{M}_{\odot }$ relative to less massive systems, indicating a suppression of merger activity in large potential wells. In the fiducial case of relaxed groups only, we measure a variation $\Delta \Gamma /\Delta \log (M_{HALO})\sim -0.07$ dex${}^{-1}$, which is almost independent of galaxy mass and merger stage. At galaxy masses $>10^{10.2}{M}_{\odot }$, most mergers are dry accretions of quenched satellites onto quenched centrals, leading to a strong increase of $\Gamma$ with decreasing group-centric distance at these mass scales.Both satellite and central galaxies in these high mass mergers do not differ in color and structural properties from a control sample of nonmerging galaxies of equal mass and rank. At galaxy masses $<10^{10.2}{M}_{\odot }$, where we mostly probe satellite-satellite pairs and mergers between star-forming systems, close pairs (projected distance $<10-20$ kpc) show instead $\sim 2\times$ enhanced (specific) star formation rates and $\sim 1.5\times$ larger sizes than similar mass, nonmerging satellites. The increase in both size and SFR leads to similar surface star-formation densities in the merging and control-sample satellite populations.

arXiv commentPublished in ApJ, 797, 127

References in corpus (98)

• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• The Global Schmidt Law in Star Forming Galaxies
• The Origin of the Mass--Metallicity Relation: Insights from 53,000 Star-Forming Galaxies in the SDSS
• The physical properties of star forming galaxies in the low redshift universe
• The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: Spectra and redshifts
• Statistical Properties of X-ray Clusters: Analytic and Numerical Comparisons
• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• Galaxy Harassment and the Evolution of Clusters of Galaxies
• Secular Evolution and the Formation of Pseudobulges in Disk Galaxies
• The hierarchical formation of the brightest cluster galaxies
• The epochs of early-type galaxy formation as a function of environment
• Concentrations of Dark Halos from their Assembly Histories
• The ages and metallicities of galaxies in the local universe
• From dwarf spheroidals to cDs: Simulating the galaxy population in a LCDM cosmology
• Differential Galaxy Evolution in Cluster and Field Galaxies at z=0.3
• Galaxy bimodality versus stellar mass and environment
• The Galactic disk mass function: reconciliation of the HST and nearby determinations
• The large-scale structure of the Universe
• Properties of Galaxy Groups in the SDSS: I.-- The Dependence of Colour, Star Formation, and Morphology on Halo Mass
• Galaxy evolution in groups and clusters: star formation rates, red sequence fractions, and the persistent bimodality
• The effect of galaxy mass ratio on merger--driven starbursts
• Star formation efficiency in galaxy interactions and mergers: a statistical study
• The Secular Evolution of Disk Structural Parameters
• Can Minor Merging Account for the Size Growth of Quiescent Galaxies? New Results from the CANDELS Survey
• On the Estimation of Confidence Intervals for Binomial Population Proportions in Astronomy: The Simplicity and Superiority of the Bayesian Approach
• Mass and Environment as Drivers of Galaxy Evolution II: The quenching of satellite galaxies as the origin of environmental effects
• The Recent and Continuing Assembly of Field Ellipticals by Red Mergers
• Galaxy groups in the 2dFGRS: the group-finding algorithm and the 2PIGG catalogue
• A Revised Parallel-Sequence Morphological Classification of Galaxies: Structure and Formation of S0 and Spheroidal Galaxies
• Tidally-Triggered Star Formation in Close Pairs of Galaxies
• Feedback in simulations of disc-galaxy major mergers
• GALICS I: A hybrid N-body semi-analytic model of hierarchical galaxy formation
• Environmental Dependence of Properties of Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Bulgeless Giant Galaxies Challenge our Picture of Galaxy Formation by Hierarchical Clustering
• Star Formation in Galaxy Mergers with Realistic Models of Stellar Feedback & the Interstellar Medium
• On the frequency, intensity and duration of starburst episodes triggered by galaxy interactions and mergers
• Newly-quenched galaxies as the cause for the apparent evolution in average size of the population
• The driving mechanism of starbursts in galaxy mergers
• The influence of gas on the structure of merger remnants
• The Zurich Extragalactic Bayesian Redshift Analyzer (ZEBRA) and its first application: COSMOS
• The Frequency of Tidal Features Associated with Nearby Luminous Elliptical Galaxies from a Statistically Complete Sample
• Galaxy Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - V. Tracing changes in star formation rate and metallicity out to separations of 80 kpc
• Galaxy Pairs in the 2dF Survey I. Effects of Interactions in the Field
• Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - VI. The orbital extent of enhanced star formation in interacting galaxies
• Environmental Effects on Satellite Galaxies: The Link Between Concentration, Size and Colour Profile
• A calibration of the relation between the abundance of close galaxy pairs and the rate of galaxy mergers
• Mass Accretion Rates and Histories of Dark Matter Haloes
• Shock-induced star formation in a model of the Mice
• The Effect of Gas Fraction on the Morphology and Time-scales of Disc Galaxy Mergers
• Galaxy Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - II: The Effect of Environment on Interactions
• Minor Galaxy Interactions: Star Formation Rates and Galaxy Properties
• Galaxy Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - III: Evidence of Induced Star Formation from Optical Colours
• Ongoing Assembly of Massive Galaxies by Major Merging in Large Groups and Clusters from the SDSS
• Galaxy groups in the 2dFGRS: the luminous content of the groups
• Merger Rate of Equal-Mass Spherical Galaxies
• On the Formation of Boxy and Disky Elliptical Galaxies
• A simulation of galaxy formation and clustering
• Bulges or Bars from Secular Evolution?
• The CFHTLS Deep Catalog of Interacting Galaxies I. Merger Rate Evolution to z=1.2
• Less than 10 percent of star formation in z=0.6 massive galaxies is triggered by major interactions
• Where do Wet, Dry, and Mixed Galaxy Mergers Occur? A Study of the Environments of Close Galaxy Pairs in the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey
• The Evolution of Central Group Galaxies in Hydrodynamical Simulations
• The Dependence of the Mass Assembly History of Cold Dark Matter Halos on Environment
• The Fate of Substructures in Cold Dark Matter Haloes
• Galaxy Pairs in the 2dFGRS II. Effects of interactions on star formation in groups and clusters
• Galactic Bulges from HST-NICMOS Observations: Ages and Dust
• Dissipation and the Fundamental Plane: Observational Tests
• Evidence of major dry mergers at M* > 2 x 10^11 Msun from curvature in early-type galaxy scaling relations?
• The H alpha Galaxy Survey. VIII. Close companions and interactions, and the definition of starbursts
• The importance of dry and wet merging on the formation and evolution of elliptical galaxies
• Isolating Triggered Star Formation
• The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: Dynamically Close Galaxy Pairs and the Global Merger Rate
• Triggered Star Formation in Galaxy Pairs at z=0.08-0.38
• Old and young bulges in late-type disk galaxies
• The Build-Up of the Hubble Sequence in the COSMOS Field
• Effects of galaxy interactions in different environments
• Halo and Galaxy Formation Histories from the Millennium Simulation: Public release of a VO-oriented and SQL-queryable database for studying the evolution of galaxies in the LambdaCDM cosmogony
• The Hubble Sequence in Groups: The Birth of the Early-Type Galaxies
• The Dissipative Merger Progenitors of Elliptical Galaxies
• The Zurich Environmental Study (ZENS) of Galaxies in Groups along the Cosmic Web. I. Which Environment Affects Galaxy Evolution?
• Tidal debris in elliptical galaxies as tracers of mergers with disks
• GalICS II: the [alpha/Fe]-mass relation in elliptical galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The Life and Times of L* Galaxies
• An RXTE study of M87 and the core of the Virgo cluster
• The Late Stellar Assembly of Massive Cluster Galaxies Via Major Merging
• Global environmental effects versus galaxy interactions
• Building a control sample for galaxy pairs
• Environmental effects in the interaction and merging of galaxies in zCOSMOS
• The Zurich Environmental Study of Galaxies in Groups along the Cosmic Web. III. Galaxy Photometric Measurements and the Spatially-Resolved Color Properties of Early- and Late-Type Satellites in Diverse Environments
• Close companions to Brightest Cluster Galaxies: Support for minor mergers and downsizing
• Infrared Properties of Close Pairs of Galaxies
• An Extremely Massive Dry Galaxy Merger in a Moderate Redshift Cluster
• A study of AGN and supernova feedback in simulations of isolated and merging disc galaxies
• The Zurich Environmental Study (ZENS) of Galaxies in Groups along the Cosmic Web. II. Galaxy Structural Measurements and the Concentration of Morphologically Classified Satellites in Diverse Environments
• Interacting Galaxies in the A901/902 Supercluster with STAGES
• Are Red Tidal Features Unequivocal Signatures of Major Dry Mergers?
• Witnessing the Formation of a Brightest Cluster Galaxy in a Nearby X-ray Cluster

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Early- and late-stage mergers among main sequence and starburst galaxies at 0.2<z<2
• ZENS IV. Similar Morphological Changes associated with Mass- and Environment-Quenching, and the Relative importance of Bulge Growth versus the Fading of Disks
• Stellar mass functions of galaxies, disks and spheroids at z~0.1
• The Fornax3D project: Assembly histories of lenticular galaxies from a combined dynamical and population orbital analysis
• A Physical Approach to the Identification of High-z Mergers: Morphological Classification in the Stellar Mass Domain
• On the evolution of the central density of quiescent galaxies
• Environmental dependence of the galaxy stellar mass function in the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification Data
• RESOLVE and ECO: The Halo Mass-Dependent Shape of Galaxy Stellar and Baryonic Mass Functions
• Effects of galaxy environment on merger fraction
• Galaxy Luminosity Function of Dynamically Young Abell 119 Cluster: Probing the Cluster Assembly
• Linking galaxies to dark matter haloes at $z\sim 1$ : dependence of galaxy clustering on stellar mass and specific star formation rate
• Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
• Close Binary Galaxies: Application to Source of Energy and Expansion in Universe