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

Robotham, 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 and Wilkins, SM (2014) Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): galaxy close pairs, mergers and the future fate of stellar mass. MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, 444 (4). pp. 3986-4008. ISSN 0035-8711

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Abstract

We use a highly complete subset of the GAMA-II redshift sample to fully describe the stellar mass dependence of close-pairs and mergers between 108M_ and 1012M_. Using the analytic form of this fit we investigate the total stellar mass accreting onto more massive galaxies across all mass ratios. Depending on how conservatively we select our robust merging systems, the fraction of mass merging onto more massive companions is 2:0%{5:6%. Using the GAMA-II data we see no significant evidence for a change in the close-pair fraction between redshift z = 0:05{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 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 normalisation 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 GSMF, manifest as a deepening of the `dip' in the GSMF over the next _Gyr and an increase in M_ by as much as 0.01{0.05 dex.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society following peer review. The version of record "Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): galaxy close pairs, mergers and the future fate of stellar mass", MNRAS, 444(4), pp.3986-4008 is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu1604
Uncontrolled Keywords: 0201 Astronomical And Space Sciences
Subjects: Q Science > QB Astronomy
Divisions: Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher: OXFORD UNIV PRESS
Related URLs:
Date Deposited: 27 Oct 2015 08:38
Last Modified: 04 Sep 2021 14:09
DOI or ID number: 10.1093/mnras/stu1604
URI: https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/1688

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