Beecroft Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology

Abstract:

We use Horizon-AGN, a hydrodynamical cosmological simulation, to explore the role of mergers in the evolution of massive (M_* > 10¹⁰ M_⊙) galaxies around the epoch of peak cosmic star formation (1 < z < 4). The fraction of massive galaxies in major mergers (mass ratio R < 4: 1) is around 3 per cent, a factor of ∼2.5 lower than minor mergers (4: 1 < R < 10: 1) at these epochs, with no trend with redshift. At z ∼ 1, around a third of massive galaxies have undergone a major merger, while all remaining systems have undergone a minor merger. While almost all major mergers at z > 3 are ‘blue’ (i.e. have significant associated star formation), the proportion of ‘red’ mergers increases rapidly at z < 2, with most merging systems at z ∼ 1.5 producing remnants that are red in rest-frame UV–optical colours. The star formation enhancement during major mergers is mild (∼20–40 per cent) which, together with the low incidence of such events, implies that this process is not a significant driver of early stellar mass growth. Mergers (R < 10: 1) host around a quarter of the total star formation budget in this redshift range, with major mergers hosting around two-thirds of this contribution. Notwithstanding their central importance to the standard Λ cold dark matter paradigm, mergers are minority players in driving star formation at the epochs where the bulk of today's stellar mass was formed.

Abstract:

We present the results of a search for bright (-22.7 ≤MUV ≤-20.5) Lyman-break galaxies at z≃6 within a total of 1.65 deg < sup > 2 < /sup > of imaging in theUltraVISTA/Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS) and United Kingdom Infrared Telescope Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Ultra Deep Survey (UDS) fields. The deep near-infrared imaging available in the two independent fields, in addition to deep optical (including z′-band) data, enables the sample of z ≃ 6 star-forming galaxies to be securely detected longward of the break (in contrast to several previous studies). We show that the expected contamination rate of our initial sample by cool Galactic brown dwarfs is ≲3 per cent and demonstrate that they can be effectively removed by fitting brown dwarf spectral templates to the photometry. At z ≃ 6, the galaxy surface density in the UltraVISTA field exceeds that in the UDS by a factor of ≃ 1.8, indicating strong cosmic variance even between degree-scale fields at z > 5. We calculate the bright end of the restframe Ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function (LF) at z ≃ 6. The galaxy number counts are a factor of ~1.7 lower than predicted by the recent LF determination by Bouwens et al. In comparison to other smaller area studies, we find an evolution in the characteristic magnitude between z ≃ 5 and z ≃ 7 of δM* ~ 0.4, and show that a double power law or a Schechter function can equally well describe the LF at z = 6. Furthermore, the bright end of the LF appears to steepen from z ≃ 7 to z ≃ 5, which could indicate the onset of mass quenching or the rise of dust obscuration, a conclusion supported by comparing the observed LFs to a range of theoretical model predictions.