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arXiv 0903.3035astro-ph.CO
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星系合并在宇宙恒星形成史中的作用

Role of Galaxy Mergers in Cosmic Star Formation History

Yong Shi, George Rieke, Jennifer Lotz, Pablo G. Perez-Gonzalez

摘要:

利用一种改进的深场不对称性测量方法,对GOODS场中的中红移(0.2<z<1.2)亮红外星系(LIRGs)和一般场星系进行了形态学研究。通过仔细考虑潜在的天空背景结构的重要性,我们的新方法不会受到系统偏差的影响,并提供小的不确定性。通过将局域LIRGs和低红移GOODS星系红移到不同的更高的红移,我们发现由于表面亮度变暗而引起的星系不对称性的红移依赖性是不对称性本身的函数,对于更不对称的物体有更大的校正。通过应用红移,红外光度和光学亮度相关的不对称校正,我们发现,中间红移LIRG一般表现出高度不对称的形态,与隐含的合并分数~50%,z=1.2,虽然他们是稍微比本地LIRG更对称。对于一般场星系,我们发现一个几乎恒定的相对较高的合并分数(20-30%)。在z=1.2以下的不同红移下,得到了星系合并的B带低频,证实了在打破光度-密度简并后,合并分数的弱演化。红外光度函数(LFs)的星系合并也得到了,表明在较高的红外光度较大的合并分数。并合红外低频的积分表明并合引起的红外能量密度[(1+z)^(5-6)}]发生了剧烈的演化,在z>~1时,星系并合开始主导宇宙红外能量密度。

英文摘要:

We present a morphology study of intermediate-redshift (0.2<z<1.2) luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) and general field galaxies in the GOODS fields using a revised asymmetry measurement method optimized for deep fields. By taking careful account of the importance of the underlying sky-background structures, our new method does not suffer from systematic bias and offers small uncertainties. By redshifting local LIRGs and low-redshift GOODS galaxies to different higher redshifts, we have found that the redshift dependence of the galaxy asymmetry due to surface-brightness dimming is a function of the asymmetry itself, with larger corrections for more asymmetric objects. By applying redshift-, IR-luminosity- and optical-brightness-dependent asymmetry corrections, we have found that intermediate-redshift LIRGs generally show highly asymmetric morphologies, with implied merger fractions ~50% up to z=1.2, although they are slightly more symmetric than local LIRGs. For general field galaxies, we find an almost constant relatively high merger fraction (20-30%). The B-band LFs of galaxy mergers are derived at different redshifts up to z=1.2 and confirm the weak evolution of the merger fraction after breaking the luminosity-density degeneracy. The IR luminosity functions (LFs) of galaxy mergers are also derived, indicating a larger merger fraction at higher IR luminosity. The integral of the merger IR LFs indicates a dramatic evolution of the merger-induced IR energy density [(1+z)^(5-6)}], and that galaxy mergers start to dominate the cosmic IR energy density at z>~1.

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