Dry mergers: a crucial test for galaxy formation |
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Authors: | S. Khochfar J. Silk |
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Affiliation: | Department of Physics, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH;Max Planck Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, po box 1312, D-85478 Garching, Germany |
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Abstract: | We investigate the role that dry mergers play in the build-up of massive galaxies within the cold dark matter paradigm. Implementing an empirical shut-off mass scale for star formation, we find a nearly constant dry merger rate of ∼6 × 10−5 Mpc−3 Gyr−1 at z ≤ 1 and a steep decline at larger z . Less than half of these mergers are between two galaxies that are morphologically classified as early-types, and the other half is mostly between an early- and late-type galaxy. Latter are prime candidates for the origin of tidal features around red elliptical galaxies. The introduction of a transition mass scale for star formation has a strong impact on the evolution of galaxies, allowing them to grow above a characteristic mass scale of M *, c ∼ 6.3 × 1010 M⊙ by mergers only. As a consequence of this transition, we find that around M *, c , the fraction of 1:1 mergers is enhanced with respect to unequal mass major mergers. This suggests that it is possible to detect the existence of a transition mass scale by measuring the relative contribution of equal mass mergers to unequal mass mergers as a function of galaxy mass. The evolution of the high-mass end of the luminosity function is mainly driven by dry mergers at low z . We however find that only 10–20 per cent of galaxies more massive than M *, c experience dry major mergers within their last Gyr at any given redshift z ≤ 1 . |
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Keywords: | galaxies: evolution galaxies: formation galaxies: general galaxies: interactions |
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