A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): galaxy close pairs, mergers and the future fate of stellar mass




AuthorsRobotham ASG, Driver SP, Davies LJM, Hopkins AM, Baldry IK, Agius NK, Bauer AE, Bland-Hawthorn J, Brough S, Brown MJI, Cluver M, De Propris R, Drinkwater MJ, Holwerda BW, Kelvin LS, Lara-Lopez MA, Liske J, Lopez-Sanchez AR, Loveday J, Mahajan S, McNaught-Roberts T, Moffett A, Norberg P, Obreschkow D, Owers MS, Penny SJ, Pimbblet K, Prescott M, Taylor EN, van Kampen E, Wilkins SM

PublisherOXFORD UNIV PRESS

Publication year2014

JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Journal name in sourceMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

Journal acronymMON NOT R ASTRON SOC

Volume444

Issue4

First page 3986

Last page4008

Number of pages23

ISSN0035-8711

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu1604


Abstract

We use a highly complete subset of the Galaxy And Mass Assembly II (GAMA-II) redshift sample to fully describe the stellar mass dependence of close pairs and mergers between 10(8) and 10(12)M(circle dot). Using the analytic form of this fit we investigate the total stellar mass accreting on to more massive galaxies across all mass ratios. Depending on how conservatively we select our robust merging systems, the fraction of mass merging on to more massive companions is 2.0-5.6 per cent. Using the GAMA-II data we see no significant evidence for a change in the close pair fraction between redshift z = 0.05 and 0.2. However, we find a systematically higher fraction of galaxies in similar mass close pairs compared to published results over a similar redshift baseline. Using a compendium of data and the function gamma(M) = A(1 + z)(m) to predict the major close pair fraction, we find fitting parameters of A = 0.021 +/- 0.001 and m = 1.53 +/- 0.08, which represents a higher low-redshift normalization and shallower power-law slope than recent literature values. We find that the relative importance of in situ star formation versus galaxy merging is inversely correlated, with star formation dominating the addition of stellar material below M* and merger accretion events dominating beyond M*. We find mergers have a measurable impact on the whole extent of the galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF), manifest as a deepening of the 'dip' in the GSMF over the next similar to Gyr and an increase in M* by as much as 0.01-0.05 dex.



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