New criteria for the selection of galaxy close pairs from cosmological simulations: evolution of the major and minor merger fraction in MUSE deep fields

Abstract

It is still a challenge to assess the merger fraction of galaxies at different cosmic epochs in order to probe the evolution of their mass assembly. Using the Illustris cosmological simulations, we investigate the relation between the separation of galaxies in a pair, both in velocity and projected spatial separation space, and the probability that these interacting galaxies will merge in the future. From this analysis, we propose a new set of criteria to select close pairs of galaxies along with a new corrective term to be applied to the computation of the galaxy merger fraction. We then probe the evolution of the major and minor merger fraction using the latest MUSE deep observations over the HUDF, HDFS, COSMOS-Gr30 and Abell 2744 regions. From a parent sample of 2483 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts, we identify 366 close pairs spread over a large range of redshifts ($0.2<z<6$) and stellar masses ($10^7-10^{11}{M}_{\odot }$). Using the stellar mass ratio between the secondary and primary galaxy as a proxy to split the sample into major, minor and very minor mergers, we found a total of 183 major, 142 minor and 47 very minor close pairs corresponding to a mass ratio range of 1:1-1:6, 1:6-1:100 and lower than 1:100, respectively. Due to completeness issues, we do not consider the very minor pairs in the analysis. Overall, the major merger fraction increases up to $z\approx 2-3$ reaching 25% for pairs with the most massive galaxy with a stellar mass $M^{\ast }\ge 10^{9.5}{M}_{\odot }$. Beyond this redshift, the fraction decreases down to $\sim 5$% at $z\approx 6$. The evolution of the minor merger fraction is roughly constant with cosmic time, with a fraction of 20% at $z<3$ and a slow decrease between $3\le z\le 6$ to 8-13%.

26 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (38)

• Introducing the Illustris Project: Simulating the coevolution of dark and visible matter in the Universe
• The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) -- Overview
• Introducing the Illustris Project: the evolution of galaxy populations across cosmic time
• An ultra-deep near-infrared spectrum of a compact quiescent galaxy at z=2.2
• The MUSE second-generation VLT instrument
• Cold gas accretion in galaxies
• Star formation efficiency in galaxy interactions and mergers: a statistical study
• The accretion origin of the Milky Way's stellar halo
• The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: I. Survey description, data reduction and source detection
• Kinemetry of SINS High-Redshift Star-Forming Galaxies: Distinguishing Rotating Disks from Major Mergers
• The Redshift Evolution of Wet, Dry, and Mixed Galaxy Mergers from Close Galaxy Pairs in the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey
• 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
• A chronicle of galaxy mass assembly in the EAGLE simulation
• Observational constraints on the merger history of galaxies since $z\approx 6$: Probabilistic galaxy pair counts in the CANDELS fields
• UVUDF: Ultraviolet Through Near-infrared Catalog and Photometric Redshifts of Galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
• The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: II. Spectroscopic redshifts and comparisons to color selections of high-redshift galaxies
• The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: The connection between close pairs and asymmetry; implications for the galaxy merger rate
• MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) II. A study of gas accretion around $z\approx 1$ star-forming galaxies with background quasars
• A consistent measure of the merger histories of massive galaxies using close-pair statistics I: Major mergers at $z<3.5$
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Refining the Local Galaxy Merger Rate using Morphological Information
• 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
• A Surprisingly High Pair Fraction for Extremely Massive Galaxies at z ~ 3 in the GOODS NICMOS Survey
• EVLA Observations of Galactic Supernova Remnants: Wide-field Continuum and Spectral-index Imaging
• Observing the End of Cold Flow Accretion using Halo Absorption Systems
• The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey. IX. Evolution of galaxy merger fraction since z~6
• The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey: the contribution of minor mergers to the growth of L_B >= L*_B galaxies since z ~ 1 from spectroscopically identified pairs
• Distinguishing Mergers and Disks in High Redshift Observations of Galaxy Kinematics
• Formation of S0 galaxies through mergers. V. Antitruncated stellar discs resulting from major mergers
• Simulating the COSMOS: The fraction of merging galaxies at high redshift
• The ALHAMBRA survey: Accurate merger fractions by PDF analysis of photometric close pairs
• Ionised gas structure of 100 kpc in an over-dense region of the galaxy group COSMOS-Gr30 at z ~ 0.7
• A Physical Approach to the Identification of High-z Mergers: Morphological Classification in the Stellar Mass Domain
• The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: III. Testing photometric redshifts to 30th magnitude
• Spectro-photometric close pairs in GOODS-S: major and minor companions of intermediate-mass galaxies
• The G-dwarf problem in the Galaxy

Cited by in corpus (36)

• The ALPINE-ALMA [CII] survey: The contribution of major mergers to the galaxy mass assembly at z~5
• Galaxy Evolution in all Five CANDELS Fields and IllustrisTNG: Morphological, Structural, and the Major Merger Evolution to $z\sim 3$
• Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey -- XIV. Galaxy mergers do not lie on the Fundamental Metallicity Relation
• 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
• The MUSE Extremely Deep Field: a first panoramic view of an Mg II emitting intragroup medium
• Extremely efficient mergers of intermediate mass black hole binaries in nucleated dwarf galaxies
• The ALMA REBELS Survey: Discovery of a massive, highly star-forming and morphologically complex ULIRG at $z=7.31$
• 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
• SDSS J211852.96-073227.5: The first non-local, interacting, late-type intermediate Seyfert galaxy with relativistic jets
• The Connection between Mergers and AGN Activity in Simulated and Observed Massive Galaxies
• The volume density of giant low surface brightness galaxies
• Groups and protocluster candidates in the CLAUDS and HSC-SSP joint deep surveys
• The COSMOS-Web ring: in-depth characterization of an Einstein ring lensing system at z~2
• ALMA [CII] 158um imaging of an HI-Selected Major Merger at z~4
• The rate and contribution of mergers to mass assembly from NIRCam observations of galaxy candidates up to 13.3 billion years ago
• Remnants of recent mergers in nearby early-type galaxies and their classification
• MAGIC: Muse gAlaxy Groups In Cosmos -- A survey to probe the impact of environment on galaxy evolution over the last 8 Gyr
• Scaling relations of z~0.25-1.5 galaxies in various environments from the morpho-kinematic analysis of the MAGIC sample
• 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
• WALLABY Pilot Survey: HI gas kinematics of galaxy pairs in cluster environment
• A catalog of candidate double and lensed quasars from Gaia and WISE data
• Real galaxy mergers from galaxy pair catalogs
• Multiresolution angular momentum measurements of z~1.5-2 star-forming galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) Survey: The Merging Potential of Brightest Group Galaxies
• EMERGE: Constraining merging probabilities and timescales of close galaxy pairs
• The evolution of galaxy scaling relations in clusters at 0.5<z<1.5
• Star Formation in CALIFA survey perturbed galaxies. I. Effects of Tidal Interactions
• MaNGA AGN dwarf galaxies (MAD). III. The role of mergers and environment in active galactic nucleus activity in dwarf galaxies
• The Ly$\alpha$ and Continuum Origins Survey. III. Investigating the Link between Galaxy Morphology, Merger Properties and LyC Escape
• The Lyman Alpha Reference Sample. XVI. Global 21cm HI properties of Lyman-$\alpha$ emitting galaxies
• An effective model for the tidal disruption of satellites undergoing minor mergers with axisymmetric primaries
• Low-redshift quasars in the SDSS Stripe 82 -- III MOS observations
• An ALMA Band 7 survey of SDSS/Herschel quasars in Stripe 82: I. The properties of the 870 micron counterparts
• Evidence for Multiple Types of Post-Starburst Galaxies