Observational constraints on the merger history of galaxies since $z\approx 6$: Probabilistic galaxy pair counts in the CANDELS fields

Abstract

Galaxy mergers are expected to have a significant role in the mass assembly of galaxies in the early Universe, but there are very few observational constraints on the merger history of galaxies at $z>2$. We present the first study of galaxy major mergers (mass ratios $>$ 1:4) in mass-selected samples out to $z\approx 6$. Using all five fields of the HST/CANDELS survey and a probabilistic pair count methodology that incorporates the full photometric redshift posteriors and corrections for stellar mass completeness, we measure galaxy pair-counts for projected separations between 5 and 30 kpc in stellar mass selected samples at $9.7<{\log }_{10}({\mathrm{M}}_{\ast }/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot })<10.3$ and ${\log }_{10}({\mathrm{M}}_{\ast }/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot })>10.3$. We find that the major merger pair fraction rises with redshift to $z\approx 6$ proportional to $(1+z{)}^m$, with $m=0.8\pm 0.2$ ($m=1.8\pm 0.2$) for ${\log }_{10}({\mathrm{M}}_{\ast }/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot })>10.3$ ($9.7<{\log }_{10}({\mathrm{M}}_{\ast }/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot })<10.3$). Investigating the pair fraction as a function of mass ratio between 1:20 and 1:1, we find no evidence for a strong evolution in the relative numbers of minor to major mergers out to $z<3$. Using evolving merger timescales we find that the merger rate per galaxy ($\mathcal{R}$) rises rapidly from $0.07\pm 0.01$ Gyr${}^{-1}$ at $z<1$ to $7.6\pm 2.7$ Gyr${}^{-1}$ at $z=6$ for galaxies at ${\log }_{10}({\mathrm{M}}_{\ast }/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot })>10.3$. The corresponding co-moving major merger rate density remains roughly constant during this time, with rates of $\Gamma \approx 10^{-4}$ Gyr${}^{-1}$ Mpc${}^{-3}$. Based on the observed merger rates per galaxy, we infer specific mass accretion rates from major mergers that are comparable to the specific star-formation rates for the same mass galaxies at $z>3$ - observational evidence that mergers are as important a mechanism for building up mass at high redshift as in-situ star-formation.

arXiv comment36 pages, 17 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (106)

• emcee: The MCMC Hammer
• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star-Forming Galaxies
• Cosmic Star Formation History
• The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments
• The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) for the Spitzer Space Telescope
• Introducing the Illustris Project: Simulating the coevolution of dark and visible matter in the Universe
• The Average Star Formation Histories of Galaxies in Dark Matter Halos from z=0-8
• CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey
• CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey - The Hubble Space Telescope Observations, Imaging Data Products and Mosaics
• EAZY: A Fast, Public Photometric Redshift Code
• On the normalisation of the cosmic star formation history
• The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey: Initial Results From Optical and Near-Infrared Imaging
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: I. Galaxy Mergers & Quasar Activity
• A Highly Consistent Framework for the Evolution of the Star-Forming "Main Sequence" from z~0-6
• Introducing the Illustris Project: the evolution of galaxy populations across cosmic time
• Mass assembly in quiescent and star-forming galaxies since z=4 from UltraVISTA
• Formation of Massive Galaxies at High Redshift: Cold Streams, Clumpy Disks and Compact Spheroids
• 3D-HST WFC3-selected Photometric Catalogs in the Five CANDELS/3D-HST Fields: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Masses
• The Evolution of the Stellar Mass Functions of Star-Forming and Quiescent Galaxies to z = 4 from the COSMOS/UltraVISTA Survey
• The Hubble Ultra Deep Field
• The merger rate of galaxies in the Illustris Simulation: a comparison with observations and semi-empirical models
• Problems with Fitting to the Power-Law Distribution
• 3D-HST: A wide-field grism spectroscopic survey with the Hubble Space Telescope
• The Spitzer Legacy Survey of the HST-ACS 2 sq. deg. COSMOS Field: survey strategy and first analysis
• The All-wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS) Data Sets
• New Constraints on Cosmic Reionization from the 2012 Hubble Ultra Deep Field Campaign
• Structural Parameters of Galaxies in CANDELS
• CANDELS Multi-wavelength Catalogs: Source Detection and Photometry in the GOODS-South Field
• A Direct Measurement of Major Galaxy Mergers at z < 3
• The Abundance of Star-Forming Galaxies in the Redshift Range 8.5 to 12: New Results from the 2012 Hubble Ultra Deep Field Campaign
• The Evolution of Galaxy Structure over Cosmic Time
• zCOSMOS - 10k-bright spectroscopic sample. The bimodality in the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function: exploring its evolution with redshift
• Keck Spectroscopy of 3<z<7 Faint Lyman Break Galaxies: The Importance of Nebular Emission in Understanding the Specific Star Formation Rate and Stellar Mass Density
• The Major and Minor Galaxy Merger Rates at z < 1.5
• Galaxy Merger Morphologies and Time-Scales from Simulations of Equal-Mass Gas-Rich Disc Mergers
• Formation of gas disks in merging galaxies
• Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - IV: Interactions trigger AGN
• The Size Evolution of High Redshift Galaxies
• A Critical Assessment of Photometric Redshift Methods: A CANDELS Investigation
• Discovery of z~8 Galaxies in the HUDF from ultra-deep WFC3/IR Observations
• Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the CFRS and LDSS redshift surveys - IV. Influence of mergers in the evolution of faint field galaxies from z~1
• CANDELS Multiwavelength catalogs: Source Identification and Photometry in the CANDELS UKIDSS Ultra-Deep Survey Field
• The HST eXtreme Deep Field XDF: Combining all ACS and WFC3/IR Data on the HUDF Region into the Deepest Field Ever
• The mass evolution of the first galaxies: stellar mass functions and star formation rates at $4<z<7$ in the CANDELS GOODS-South field
• The Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 Early Release Science data: Panchromatic Faint Object Counts for 0.2-2 microns wavelength
• Stellar masses from the CANDELS survey: the GOODS-South and UDS fields
• The Greater Impact of Mergers on the Growth of Massive Galaxies: Implications for Mass Assembly and Evolution Since z~1
• The Multiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC): Deep Medium-Band optical imaging and high quality 32-band photometric redshifts in the ECDF-S
• The Effect of Mass Ratio on the Morphology and Time-scales of Disc Galaxy Mergers
• New Techniques for Relating Dynamically Close Galaxy Pairs to Merger and Accretion Rates : Application to the SSRS2 Redshift Survey
• The merger rate of massive galaxies
• History of Galaxy Interactions and their Impact on Star Formation over the Last 7 Gyr from GEMS
• Mergers in Lambda-CDM: Uncertainties in Theoretical Predictions and Interpretations of the Merger Rate
• The Structures of Distant Galaxies I: Galaxy Structures and the Merger Rate to z~3 in the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field
• The MUSE 3D view of the Hubble Deep Field South
• A calibration of the relation between the abundance of close galaxy pairs and the rate of galaxy mergers
• CANDELS: The Contribution of the Observed Galaxy Population to Cosmic Reionization
• Escape fraction of ionizing photons from high-redshift galaxies in cosmological SPH simulations
• CANDELS Multiwavelength Catalogs: Source Identification and Photometry in the CANDELS Extended Groth Strip
• A chronicle of galaxy mass assembly in the EAGLE simulation
• The Effect of Gas Fraction on the Morphology and Time-scales of Disc Galaxy Mergers
• Parameter estimation for power-law distributions by maximum likelihood methods
• The structures and total (minor + major) merger histories of massive galaxies up to z = 3 in the HST GOODS NICMOS Survey: A possible solution to the size evolution problem
• The 2012 Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF12): Observational Overview
• CANDELS Multiwavelength Catalogs: Source Identification and Photometry in the CANDELS COSMOS Survey Field
• How Do Star-Forming Galaxies at Z>3 Assemble Their Masses?
• SHARDS: an optical spectro-photometric survey of distant galaxies
• The evolving slope of the stellar mass function at 0.6 <= z < 4.5 from deep WFC3 data
• Confronting theoretical models with the observed evolution of the galaxy population out to z=4
• Resolving the Discrepancy of Galaxy Merger Fraction Measurements at z ~ 0 - 3
• The CFHTLS Deep Catalog of Interacting Galaxies I. Merger Rate Evolution to z=1.2
• A consistent measure of the merger histories of massive galaxies using close-pair statistics I: Major mergers at $z<3.5$
• Stellar mass functions: methods, systematics and results for the local Universe
• GPz: Non-stationary sparse Gaussian processes for heteroscedastic uncertainty estimation in photometric redshifts
• Deconstructing the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function with UKIDSS and CANDELS: the Impact of Colour, Structure and Environment
• The ALHAMBRA Survey: Bayesian Photometric Redshifts with 23 bands for 3 squared degrees
• A Comparison between Semi-Analytic Model Predictions for the CANDELS Survey
• A Survey of Faint Galaxy Pairs
• A catalog of mid-infrared sources in the Extended Groth Strip
• The merger-driven evolution of massive galaxies
• The Pair Fraction of Massive Galaxies at 0 < z < 3
• Massive Close Pairs Measure Rapid Galaxy Assembly in Mergers at High Redshift
• Major Merging History in CANDELS. I. Evolution of the Incidence of Massive Galaxy-Galaxy Pairs from z=3 to z~0
• Photometric redshifts for the next generation of deep radio continuum surveys - I: Template fitting
• A Surprisingly High Pair Fraction for Extremely Massive Galaxies at z ~ 3 in the GOODS NICMOS Survey
• The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey. IX. Evolution of galaxy merger fraction since z~6
• Galaxy Mergers at z>1 in the HUDF: Evidence for a Peak in the Major Merger Rate of Massive Galaxies
• Contamination of Broad-Band Photometry by Nebular Emission in High Redshift Galaxies: Investigations with Keck's MOSFIRE Near-Infrared Spectrograph
• A Sparse Gaussian Process Framework for Photometric Redshift Estimation
• Minor vs Major Mergers: The Stellar Mass Growth of Massive Galaxies from z=3 using Number Density Selection Techniques
• A blind test of photometric redshifts on ground-based data
• Constraints on the merging channel of massive galaxies since z~1
• The Effect of Galactic Properties on the Escape Fraction of Ionizing Photons
• A Comparison of Galaxy Merger History Observations and Predictions from Semi-Analytic Models
• The role of major mergers in shaping galaxies at 2<z<4 in the VUDS and VVDS surveys
• The Structures of Distant Galaxies - II: Diverse Galaxy Structures and Local Environments at z = 4-6; Implications for Early Galaxy Assembly
• Photometric redshifts for the next generation of deep radio continuum surveys - II. Gaussian processes and hybrid estimates
• Probing the Evolution of the Galaxy Interaction/Merger Rate Using Collisional Ring Galaxies
• Improving Photometric Redshift Estimation using GPz: size information, post processing and improved photometry
• The Structures of Distant Galaxies - IV: A New Empirical Measurement of the Time-Scale for Galaxy Mergers - Implications for the Merger History
• Counting Pairs of Faint Galaxies
• Overconfidence in Photometric Redshift Estimation
• The ALHAMBRA survey: Accurate merger fractions by PDF analysis of photometric close pairs
• Spectro-photometric close pairs in GOODS-S: major and minor companions of intermediate-mass galaxies

Cited by in corpus (129)

• Euclid. I. Overview of the Euclid mission
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Constraints on Supermassive Black Hole Binaries from the Gravitational Wave Background
• Reionization Era Bright Emission Line Survey: Selection and Characterization of Luminous Interstellar Medium Reservoirs in the z>6.5 Universe
• Non-parametric Star Formation History Reconstruction with Gaussian Processes I: Counting Major Episodes of Star Formation
• Panic! At the Disks: First Rest-frame Optical Observations of Galaxy Structure at $z>3$ with JWST in the SMACS 0723 Field
• Effect of galaxy mergers on star formation rates
• Black hole mergers from dwarf to massive galaxies with the NewHorizon and Horizon-AGN simulations
• Mergers, Starbursts, and Quenching in the Simba Simulation
• The Diversity and Variability of Star Formation Histories in Models of Galaxy Evolution
• Spatially resolved star formation and fuelling in galaxy interactions
• EPOCHS VI: The Size and Shape Evolution of Galaxies since z ~ 8 with JWST Observations
• Constraining astrophysical observables of Galaxy and Supermassive Black Hole Binary Mergers using Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Galaxy Merger Rates up to z $\sim$ 3 using a Bayesian Deep Learning Model $-$ A Major-Merger classifier using IllustrisTNG Simulation data
• The GOGREEN Survey: A deep stellar mass function of cluster galaxies at 1.0<z<1.4 and the complex nature of satellite quenching
• A JWST investigation into the bar fraction at redshifts 1 < z < 3
• The LOFAR Two-Metre Sky Survey (LoTSS): VI. Optical identifications for the second data release
• The life cycle of radio galaxies in the LOFAR Lockman Hole field
• Dynamical characterization of galaxies up to $z\sim 7$
• EMERGE: Empirical predictions of galaxy merger rates since $z\sim 6$
• The ALPINE-ALMA [CII] survey: The contribution of major mergers to the galaxy mass assembly at z~5
• New criteria for the selection of galaxy close pairs from cosmological simulations: evolution of the major and minor merger fraction in MUSE deep fields
• A hidden population of high-redshift double quasars unveiled by astrometry
• IllustrisTNG in the HSC-SSP: image data release and the major role of mini mergers as drivers of asymmetry and star formation
• JWST/NIRCam Observations of Stars and HII Regions in $z\simeq 6-8$ Galaxies: Properties of Star Forming Complexes on 150 pc Scales
• JWST reveals a possible $z\sim 11$ galaxy merger in triply-lensed MACS0647$-$JD
• A direct measurement of galaxy major and minor merger rates and stellar mass accretion histories at $z<3$ using galaxy pairs in the REFINE survey
• Galaxy Evolution in all Five CANDELS Fields and IllustrisTNG: Morphological, Structural, and the Major Merger Evolution to $z\sim 3$
• Cosmic evolution of low-excitation radio galaxies in the LOFAR Two-meter Sky Survey Deep Fields
• Gas-phase metallicity gradients in galaxies at $z\sim 6-8$
• Galaxy Mergers in the Epoch of Reionization I: A JWST Study of Pair Fractions, Merger Rates, and Stellar Mass Accretion Rates at $z=4.5-11.5$
• Morphological signatures of mergers in the TNG50 simulation and the Kilo-Degree Survey: the merger fraction from dwarfs to Milky Way-like galaxies
• The [OIII]$\lambda 5007$ equivalent width distribution at z $\sim 2$: The redshift evolution of the extreme emission line galaxies
• Investigating the Effect of Galaxy Interactions on Star Formation at 0.5<z<3.0
• Statistics of galaxy mergers: bridging the gap between theory and observation
• A significant excess in major merger rate for AGNs with the highest Eddington ratios at z<0.2
• Quantifying Non-parametric Structure of High-redshift Galaxies with Deep Learning
• North Ecliptic Pole merging galaxy catalogue
• Seeing sharper and deeper: JWST's first glimpse of the photometric and spectroscopic properties of galaxies in the epoch of reionisation
• The combined and respective roles of imaging and stellar kinematics in identifying galaxy merger remnants
• Star Formation Suppresion by Tidal Removal of Cold Molecular Gas from an Intermediate-Redshift Massive Post-Starburst Galaxy
• Unbiased Differential Size Evolution and the Inside-Out Growth of Galaxies in the Deep CANDELS GOODS Fields at $1\le z\le 7$
• Inward Bound: The incredible journey of massive black holes as they pair and merge; I. The effect of mass ratio in flattened rotating galactic nuclei
• VINTERGATAN IV: Cosmic phases of star formation in Milky Way-like galaxies
• Towards a consistent framework of comparing galaxy mergers in observations and simulations
• Identifying Galaxy Mergers in Simulated CEERS NIRCam Images using Random Forests
• Clustering with JWST: Constraining Galaxy Host Halo Masses, Satellite Quenching Efficiencies, and Merger Rates at z=4-10
• Statistics of Galactic-Scale Quasar Pairs at Cosmic Noon
• Stellar Mass Growth of Brightest Cluster Galaxy Progenitors in COSMOS Since z ~ 3
• DETECTIFz galaxy groups in the REFINE survey -- 1. Group detection and quenched fraction evolution at $z<2.5$
• Extremely efficient mergers of intermediate mass black hole binaries in nucleated dwarf galaxies
• Strong spiral arms drive secular growth of pseudo bulges in disk galaxies
• The dawn of disks: unveiling the turbulent ionised gas kinematics of the galaxy population at $z\sim 4-6$ with JWST/NIRCam grism spectroscopy
• Black hole -- galaxy scaling relations in FIRE: the importance of black hole location and mergers
• What boost galaxy mergers in two massive galaxy protoclusters at z = 2.24
• A Robust Study of High-Redshift Galaxies: Unsupervised Machine Learning for Characterising morphology with JWST up to z ~ 8
• The PAU Survey: narrowband photometric redshifts using Gaussian processes
• A Census of WISE-selected Dual and Offset AGN Across the Sky: New Constraints on Merger-Driven Triggering of Obscured AGN
• From haloes to galaxies -- II. The fundamental relations in star formation and quenching
• JWST's PEARLS: TN J1338-1942 -- I. Extreme jet triggered star-formation in a $z=4.11$ luminous radio galaxy
• OH Megamasers in HI Surveys: Forecasts and a Machine Learning Approach to Separating Disks from Mergers
• Exploring Proxies for the Supermassive Black Hole Mass Function: Implications for Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Surface Brightness Evolution of Galaxies in the CANDELS GOODS Fields up to $z\sim 6$: High-z Galaxies are Unique or Remain Undetected
• Galaxy Morphologies Revealed with Subaru HSC and Super-Resolution Techniques I: Major Merger Fractions of L_UV~3-15 L_UV* Dropout Galaxies at z~4-7
• Dust and Power: Unravelling the merger - active galactic nucleus connection in the second half of cosmic history
• Groups and protocluster candidates in the CLAUDS and HSC-SSP joint deep surveys
• Galaxy merger challenge: A comparison study between machine learning-based detection methods
• The evolution of compact massive quiescent and starforming galaxies derived from the $R_e-R_h$ and $M_{\mathrm{star}}-M_h$ relations
• CANDELS Meets GSWLC: Evolution of the Relationship Between Morphology and Star Formation Since z = 2
• A novel Bayesian approach for decomposing the radio emission of quasars: I. Modelling the radio excess in red quasars
• Probing the Merger Rates of Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxies with Gravitational Waves
• Evidence for gas-phase metal deficiency in massive protocluster galaxies at z~2.2
• Do galaxy mergers prefer under-dense environments?
• The ALMA-CRISTAL survey: Resolved kinematic studies of main sequence star-forming galaxies at 4<z<6
• Evidence of extended [CII] and dust emission in local dwarf galaxies
• Ultramassive black holes formed by triple quasar mergers at $z\sim 2$
• Dynamics of supermassive black hole triples in the ROMULUS25 cosmological simulation
• Scaling relations of z~0.25-1.5 galaxies in various environments from the morpho-kinematic analysis of the MAGIC sample
• 3D-DASH: The Widest Near-Infrared Hubble Space Telescope Survey
• A Comparison of Star-Forming Clumps and Tidal Tails in Local Mergers and High Redshift Galaxies
• On the triggering of extreme starburst events in low-metallicity galaxies: a deep search for companions of Green Peas
• The luminosity function of ringed galaxies
• Obscured AGN enhancement in galaxy pairs at cosmic noon: evidence from a probabilistic treatment of photometric redshifts
• The Most Predictive Physical Properties for the Stellar Population Radial Profiles of Nearby Galaxies
• MOSEL survey: JWST reveals major mergers/strong interactions drive the extreme emission lines in the early universe
• Cosmic Sands: The Origin of Dusty, Star-forming Galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization
• Carbon envelopes around merging galaxies at z ~ 4.5
• Mock Galaxy Surveys for HST and JWST from the IllustrisTNG Simulations
• Galactic warps: from cosmic noon to the current epoch
• Emission Line Galaxies in the SHARDS Frontier Fields I: Candidate Selection and the Discovery of Bursty Hα Emitters
• Spectroscopically Identified Emission Line Galaxy Pairs in the WISP survey
• Merger identification through photometric bands, colours, and their errors
• Real galaxy mergers from galaxy pair catalogs
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) Survey: The Merging Potential of Brightest Group Galaxies
• Galaxy Mergers in the Epoch of Reionization II: Major Merger-Triggered Star Formation and AGN Activities at $z=$ 4.5-8.5
• The significant effects of stellar mass estimation on galaxy pair fractions
• The leakage of Lyman-continuum photons from a major merger at $z\sim 1$
• Halo Growth and Merger Rates as a Cosmological Test
• The ALMA-CRISTAL survey: Extended [CII] emission in an interacting galaxy system at z ~ 5.5
• EMERGE: Constraining merging probabilities and timescales of close galaxy pairs
• Galaxy pairs in The Three Hundred simulations: a study on the performance of observational pair-finding techniques
• Determining the time before or after a galaxy merger event
• Astraeus VII: The environmental-dependent assembly of galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization
• Galaxy Zoo JWST: Up to 75% of discs are featureless at $3<z<7$
• Evolution of 3-dimensional Shape of Passively Evolving and Star-forming Galaxies at $z<1$
• Galaxy pairs in The Three Hundred simulations II: studying bound ones and identifying them via machine learning
• Through Thick and Thin: The Cosmic Evolution of Disk Scale Height
• JWST Discovery of a High-Redshift Tidal Disruption Event Candidate in COSMOS-Web
• The ALMA-CRISTAL Survey: Complex kinematics of the galaxies at the end of the Reionization Era
• Deep Large Binocular Camera r-band Observations of the GOODS-N Field
• JWST's PEARLS: A z=6 quasar in a train-wreck galaxy merger system
• The Ly$\alpha$ and Continuum Origins Survey. III. Investigating the Link between Galaxy Morphology, Merger Properties and LyC Escape
• Mass assembly history of dark matter halos in the light of $H_0$ tension
• Emission Line Galaxies in the SHARDS Hubble Frontier Fields II: Limits on Lyman-Continuum Escape Fractions of Lensed Emission Line Galaxies at Redshifts 2 < z < 3.5
• Star formation history of $0.1\le \text{z}\le 1.5$ mass-selected galaxies in the ELAIS-N1 Field
• The spatially-resolved effect of mergers on the stellar mass assembly of MaNGA galaxies
• The JWST Emission Line Survey (JELS): The sizes and merger fraction of star-forming galaxies during the Epoch of Reionization
• The MOSDEF Survey: A New View of a Remarkable z=1.89 Merger
• Classifying merger stages with adaptive deep learning and cosmological hydrodynamical simulations
• Nearby dwarf galaxies with extreme star formation rates: a window into dwarf-galaxy evolution in the early Universe
• Tracing obscured galaxy build-up at high redshift using deep radio surveys
• The HST-Hyperion Survey: Companion Fraction and Overdensity in a z ~ 2.5 Proto-supercluster
• Tidal disruption event rates across cosmic time: forecasts for LSST, Roman, and JWST and their constraints on the supermassive black hole mass function
• Gas-rich dwarf galaxy multiples in the Apertif HI survey
• High-Redshift Merger Model for Low-Frequency Gravitational Wave Background
• The most massive galaxies with large depleted cores: structural parameter relations and black hole masses
• The Cosmic Rush Hour: Rapid Formation of Bright, Massive, Disky, Star-Forming Galaxies as Signatures of Early-Universe Physics
• Merger or Not: Accounting for Human Biases in Identifying Galactic Merger Signatures
• Dynamically close galaxy pairs from the unWISE survey: Testing the merger-AGN-star formation connection
• A Simulation Driven Deep Learning Approach for Separating Mergers and Star Forming Galaxies: The Formation Histories of Clumpy Galaxies in all the CANDELS Fields