NIR Luminosity Function of Galaxies in Close Major-Merger Pairs and Mass Dependence of Merger Rate

C. K. Xu, Y. C. Sun, X. T. He

A sample of close major-merger pairs (projected separation $5\le \mathrm{r}\le 20{\mathrm{h}}^{-1}$ kpc, ${\mathrm{K}}_{\mathrm{s}}$ band magnitude difference $\delta {\mathrm{K}}_{\mathrm{s}}\le 1$ mag) is selected from the…