Massive Early-Type Galaxies in the HSC-SSP: Flux Fraction of Tidal Features and Merger Rates

Abstract

Here we present a statistical study on tidal features around massive early-type galaxies (ETGs). Utilizing the imaging data of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP), we measure the flux fraction of tidal features ($f_{\mathrm{tidal}}$) in 2649 ETGs with stellar mass $M_{\ast }>10^{11}{M}_{\odot }$ and redshift $0.05<z<0.15$ using automated techniques. The Wide-layer of HSC-SSP reaches a depth of $\sim 28.5$ mag arcsec${}^{-2}$ in $i$-band. Under this surface brightness limit, we find that about 28 % of these galaxies harbor prominent tidal features with $f_{\mathrm{tidal}}>1\%$, among which the number of ETGs decreases exponentially with $f_{\mathrm{tidal}}$, with a logarithmic slope of $\sim 100$. Within the stellar mass range we probe, we note that $f_{\mathrm{tidal}}$ increases by a factor of 2 from $M_{\ast }\approx 10^{11}{M}_{\odot }$ to $M_{\ast }\approx 10^{12}{M}_{\odot }$. We also perform pair-count to estimate the merger rate of these massive ETGs. Combining the merger rates with $f_{\mathrm{tidal}}$, we estimate that the typical lifetime of tidal features is $\sim$ 3 Gyr, consistent with previous studies.

Accepted for publication in ApJS, 38 pages, 11 figures

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