Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Direct Collapse To Supermassive Black Hole Seeds With Radiation Transfer: Cosmological Haloes, Kazem Ardaneh, Yang Luo, Isaac Shlosman, Kentaro Nagamine, John H. Wise, Michael C. Begelman

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We have modelled direct collapse of a primordial gas within dark matter haloes in the presence of radiative transfer, in high-resolution zoom-in simulations in a cosmological framework, down to the formation of the photosphere and the central object. Radiative transfer has been implemented in the flux-limited diffusion (FLD) approximation. Adiabatic models were run for comparison. We find that (a) the FLD flow forms an irregular central structure and does not exhibit fragmentation, contrary to adiabatic flow which forms a thick disc, driving a pair of spiral shocks, subject to Kelvin–Helmholtz shear instability forming fragments; (b) the …

Direct Collapse To Supermassive Black Hole Seeds With Radiative Transfer: Isolated Halos, Yang Luo, Kazem Ardaneh, Isaac Shlosman, Kentaro Nagamine, John H. Wise, Mitchell C. Begelman

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Direct collapse within dark matter haloes is a promising path to form supermassive black hole seeds at high redshifts. The outer part of this collapse remains optically thin. However, the innermost region of the collapse is expected to become optically thick and requires to follow the radiation field in order to understand its evolution. So far, the adiabatic approximation has been used exclusively for this purpose. We apply radiative transfer in the flux-limited diffusion (FLD) approximation to solve the evolution of coupled gas and radiation for isolated haloes. We find that (1) the photosphere forms at 10⁻⁶ pc and …

Direct Collapse To Supermassive Black Hole Seeds: Comparing The Amr And Sph Approaches, Yang Luo, Kentaro Nagamine, Isaac Shlosman

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We provide detailed comparison between the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) code ENZO-2.4 and the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH)/N-body code GADGET-3 in the context of isolated or cosmological direct baryonic collapse within dark matter (DM) haloes to form supermassive black holes. Gas flow is examined by following evolution of basic parameters of accretion flows. Both codes show an overall agreement in the general features of the collapse; however, many subtle differences exist. For isolated models, the codes increase their spatial and mass resolutions at different pace, which leads to substantially earlier collapse in SPH than in AMR cases due …

Supermassive Black Hole Seed Formation At High Redshifts: Long-Term Evolution Of The Direct Collapse, Isaac Shlosman, Jun-Hwan Choi, Mitchell C. Begelman, Kentaro Nagamine

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We use cosmological adaptive mesh refinement code enzo zoom-in simulations to study the long-term evolution of the collapsing gas within dark matter haloes at z. This direct collapse process is a leading candidate for rapid formation of supermassive black hole (SMBH) seeds. To circumvent the Courant condition at small radii, we apply the sink particle method, focusing on evolution on scales ∼0.01–10 pc. The collapse proceeds in two stages, with the secondary runaway happening within the central 10 pc. The sink particles form when the collapsing gas requires additional refinement of the grid size at the highest refinement level. …

Candels Visual Classifications: Scheme, Data Release, And First Results, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Mark Mozena, Dale D. Kocevski, Daniel H. Mcintosh, Jennifer Lotz, Eric F. Bell, Sandra M. Faber, Harry C. Ferguson, David C. Koo, Robert Bassett, Maksym Bernyk, Kirsten Blancato, Frederic Bournaud, Paolo Cassata, M. Castellano, Edmond Cheung, Christopher J. Conselice, D. Croton, Tomas Dahlen, Duilia F. De Mello, Laura Degroot, Jennifer Donley, Javiera Guedes, Norman A. Grogin, Nimish Hathi, Matt Hilton, Brett Hollon, Anton M. Koekemoer, Nick Liu, Ray A. Lucas

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We have undertaken an ambitious program to visually classify all galaxies in the five CANDELS fields down to H < 24.5 involving the dedicated efforts of over 65 individual classifiers. Once completed, we expect to have detailed morphological classifications for over 50,000 galaxies spanning 0 < z < 4 over all the fields, with classifications from 3 to 5 independent classifiers for each galaxy. Here, we present our detailed visual classification scheme, which was designed to cover a wide range of CANDELS science goals. This scheme includes the basic Hubble sequence types, but also includes a detailed look at mergers and interactions, the clumpiness of galaxies, k-corrections, and a variety of other structural properties. In this paper, we focus on the first field to be completed—GOODS-S, which has been classified at various depths. The wide area coverage spanning the full field (wide+deep+ERS) includes 7634 galaxies that have been classified by at least three different people. In the deep area of the field, 2534 galaxies have been classified by at least five different people at three different depths. With this paper, we release to the public …

A Critical Assessment Of Stellar Mass Measurement Methods, Bahram Mobasher, Tomas Dahlen, Henry C. Ferguson, Viviana Acquaviva, Guillermo Barro, Steven L. Finkelstein, Adriano Fontana, Ruth Gruetzbauch, Seth Johnson, Yu Lu, Casey Papovich, Janine Pforr, Mara Salvato, Rachel S. Somerville, Tommy Wiklind, Stijn Wuyts, Matthew L.N. Ashby, Eric Bell, Christopher J. Conselice, Mark E. Dickinson, Sandra M. Faber, Giovanni Fazio, Kristian Finlator, Audrey Galametz, Eric Gawiser, Mauro Giavalisco, Andrea Grazian, Norman A. Grogin, Yicheng Guo, Nimish Hathi, Dale Kocevski, Anton M. Koekemoer, David C. Koo, Jeffrey A. Newman, Naveen Reddy, Paola Santini, Risa H. Wechsler

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

This is the second paper in a series aimed at investigating the main sources of uncertainty in measuring the observable parameters in galaxies from their spectral energy distributions (SEDs). In the first paper we presented a detailed account of the photometric redshift measurements and an error analysis of this process. In this paper we perform a comprehensive study of the main sources of random and systematic error in stellar mass estimates for galaxies, and their relative contributions to the associated error budget. Since there is no prior knowledge of the stellar mass of galaxies (unlike their photometric redshifts), we use …

Supermassive Black Hole Formation At High Redshifts Via Direct Collapse In A Cosmological Context, Jun-Hwan Choi, Isaac Shlosman, Mitchell C. Begelman

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We study the early stage of the formation of seed supermassive black holes via direct collapse in dark matter (DM) haloes, in the cosmological context. We perform high-resolution zoom-in simulations of such collapse at high z. Using the adaptive mesh refinement code enzo, we resolve the formation and growth of a DM halo, until its virial temperature reaches ∼10⁴ K, atomic cooling turns on, and collapse ensues. We demonstrate that direct collapse proceeds in two stages, although they are not well separated. The first stage is triggered by the onset of atomic cooling, and leads to rapidly increasing …

Star Formation And Quenching Among The Most Massive Galaxies At Z ∼ 1.7, C. Mancini, A. Renzini, E. Daddi, G. Rodighiero, S. Berta, N. Grogin, Dale D. Kocevski, A. Koekemoer

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We have conducted a detailed object-by-object study of a mass-complete (M_* ≥ 10¹¹ M_⊙) sample of 56 galaxies at 1.4 ≤ z ≤ 2 in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-South field, showing that an accurate deblending in 24 μm images is essential to properly assign to each galaxy its own star formation rate (SFR), whereas an automatic procedure often fails. This applies especially to galaxies with SFRs below the main sequence (MS) value, which may be in their quenching phase. After that, the sample splits evenly between galaxies forming stars within a factor of …

A Wfc3 Grism Emission Line Redshift Catalog In The Goods-South Field, Aaron M. Morris, Dale D. Kocevski, Jonathan R. Trump, Benjamin J. Weiner, Nimish P. Hathi, Guillermo Barro, Tomas Dahlen, Sandra M. Faber, Steven L. Finkelstein, Adriano Fontana, Henry C. Ferguson, Norman A. Grogin, Ruth Grützbauch, Yicheng Guo, Li-Ting Hsu, Anton M. Koekemoer, David C. Koo, Bahram Mobasher, Janine Pforr, Mara Salvato, Tommy Wiklind, Stijn Wuyts

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We combine Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/Wide Field Camera3 (WFC3) imaging and G141 grism observations from the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) and 3D-HST surveys to produce a catalog of grism spectroscopic redshifts for galaxies in the CANDELS/GOODS-South field. The WFC3/G141 grism spectra cover a wavelength range of 1.1 ≼ λ ≼ 1.7 μm with a resolving power of R ~ 130 for point sources, thus providing rest-frame optical spectra for galaxies out to z ~ 3.5. The catalog is selected in the H-band (F160W) and includes both galaxies with and without previously …

Zfourge/Candels: On The Evolution Of M* Galaxy Progenitors From Z=3 To 0.5*, C. Papovich, I. Labbé, R. Quadri, V. Tilvi, P. Behroozi, E. F. Bell, K. Glazebrook, L. Spitler, C. M.S. Straatman, K.-V. Tran, M. Cowley, R. Davé, A. Dekel, M. Dickinson, H. C. Ferguson, S. L. Finkelstein, E. Gawiser, H. Inami, S. M. Faber, G. G. Kacprzak, L. Kawinwanichakij, Dale D. Kocevski, A. Koekemoer, D. C. Koo, P. Kurczynski, J. M. Lotz, Y. Lu, R. A. Lucas, D. Mcintosh, N. Mehrtens, B. Mobasher, A. Monson, G. Morrison, T. Nanayakkara, S. E. Persson, B. Salmon, R. Simons, A. Tomczak, P. Van Dokkum, B. Weiner, S. P. Willner

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Galaxies with stellar masses near M* contain the majority of stellar mass in the universe, and are therefore of special interest in the study of galaxy evolution. The Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) have present-day stellar masses near M*, at 5 × 10¹⁰ M _☉ (defined here to be MW-mass) and 10¹¹ M _☉ (defined to be M31-mass). We study the typical progenitors of these galaxies using the FOURSTAR Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE). ZFOURGE is a deep medium-band near-IR imaging survey, which is sensitive to the progenitors of these galaxies out to z ~ 3. …

Stellar Masses From The Candels Survey: The Goods-South And Uds Fields, P. Santini, H. C. Ferguson, A. Fontana, B. Mobasher, G. Barro, M. Castellano, S. L. Finkelstein, A. Grazian, L. T. Hsu, B. Lee, S.-K. Lee, J. Pforr, M. Salvato, T. Wiklind, S. Wuyts, O. Almaini, M. C. Cooper, A. Galametz, B. Weiner, R. Amorin, K. Boutsia, C. J. Conselice, T. Dahlen, M. E. Dickinson, M. Giavalisco, N. A. Grogin, Y. Guo, N. P. Hathi, Dale D. Kocevski, A. M. Koekemoer, P. Kurczynski, E. Merlin, A. Mortlock, J. A. Newman, D. Paris, L. Pentericci, R. Simons, S. P. Willner

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present the public release of the stellar mass catalogs for the GOODS-S and UDS fields obtained using some of the deepest near-IR images available, achieved as part of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey project. We combine the effort from 10 different teams, who computed the stellar masses using the same photometry and the same redshifts. Each team adopted their preferred fitting code, assumptions, priors, and parameter grid. The combination of results using the same underlying stellar isochrones reduces the systematics associated with the fitting code and other choices. Thanks to the availability of different estimates, we …

The Galaxy Stellar Mass Function At 3.5 ≤ Z ≤ 7.5 In The Candels/Uds, Goods-South, And Hudf Fields, A. Grazian, A. Fontana, P. Santini, J. S. Dunlop, H. C. Ferguson, M. Castellano, R. Amorin, M. L. N. Ashby, G. Barro, P. Behroozi, K. Boutsia, K. I. Caputi, R. R. Chary, A. Dekel, M. E. Dickenson, S. M. Faber, G. G. Fazio, S. L. Finkelstein, A. Galametz, E. Giallongo, M. Giavalisco, N. A. Grogin, Y. Guo, Dale D. Kocevski, A. M. Koekemoer, D. C. Koo, K.-S. Lee, Y. Lu, E. Merlin, B. Mobasher, M. Nonino, C. Paovich, D. Paris, L. Pentericci, N. Reddy, A. Renzini, B. Salmon, M. Salvato, V. Sommariva, M. Song, E. Vanzella

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Context. The form and evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF) at high redshifts provide crucial information on star formation history and mass assembly in the young Universe, close or even prior to the epoch of reionization.

Aims. We used the unique combination of deep optical/near-infrared/mid-infrared imaging provided by HST, Spitzer, and the VLT in the CANDELS-UDS, GOODS-South, and HUDF fields to determine the GSMF over the redshift range 3.5 ≤ z ≤ 7.5.

Methods. We used the HST WFC3/IR near-infrared imaging from CANDELS and HUDF09, reaching H ≃ 27 − 28.5 over a total area of 369 …

Vimos Ultra-Deep Survey (Vuds): Witnessing The Assembly Of A Massive Cluster At Z ~ 3.3, B. C. Lemaux, O. Cucciati, L. A. M. Tasca, O. Le Fèvre, G. Zamorani, P. Cassata, B. Garilli, V. Le Brun, D. Maccagni, L. Pentericci, R. Thomas, E. Vanzella, R. Amorín, S. Bardelli, P. Capak, L. P. Cassarà, M. Castellano, A. Cimatti, J. G. Cuby, S. De La Torre, A. Durkalec, A. Fontana, M. Giavalisco, A. Grazian, N. P. Hathi, O. Ilbert, C. Moreau, S. Paltani, B. Ribeiro, M. Salvato, D. Schaerer, M. Scodeggio, V. Sommariva, M. Talia, Y. Taniguchi, L. Tresse, D. Vergani, P. W. Wang, S. Charlot, T. Contini, S. Fotopoulou, R. R. Gal, Dale D. Kocevski, C. López-Sanjuan, L. M. Lubin, Y. Mellier, T. Sadibekova, N. Scoville

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Using new spectroscopic observations obtained as part of the VIMOS Ultra-Deep Survey (VUDS), we performed a systematic search for overdense environments in the early universe (z> 2) and report here on the discovery of Cl J0227-0421, a massive protocluster at z = 3.29. This protocluster is characterized by both the large overdensity of spectroscopically confirmed members, δ_gal = 10.5 ± 2.8, and a significant overdensity in photometric redshift members. The halo mass of this protocluster is estimated by a variety of methods to be ~3 × 10¹⁴ℳ_⊙ at z ~ 3.3, which, evolved to z …

Hidden Starbursts And Active Galactic Nuclei At 0 < Z < 4 From The Herschel-Vvds-Cfhtls-D1 Field: Inferences On Coevolution And Feedback, B. C. Lemaux, E. Le Foc'h, O. Le Fèvre, O. Ilbert, L. Tresse, L. M. Lubin, G. Zamorani, R. R. Gal, P. Ciliegi, P. Cassata, Dale D. Kocevski, E. J. Mcgrath, S. Bardelli, E. Zucca, G. K. Squires

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We investigate of the properties of ~2000 Herschel/SPIRE far-infrared-selected galaxies from 0 < z < 4 in the CFHTLS-D1 field. Using a combination of extensive spectroscopy from the VVDS and ORELSE surveys, deep multiwavelength imaging from CFHT, VLA, Spitzer, XMM-Newton, and Herschel, and well-calibrated spectral energy distribution fitting, Herschel-bright galaxies are compared to optically-selected galaxies at a variety of redshifts. Herschel-selected galaxies are observed to span a range of stellar masses, colors, and absolute magnitudes equivalent to galaxies undetected in SPIRE. Though many Herschel galaxies appear to be in transition, such galaxies are largely consistent with normal star-forming galaxies when rest-frame colors are utilized. The nature of the star-forming “main sequence” is studied and we warn against adopting this …

The Mass Evolution Of The First Galaxies: Stellar Mass Functions And Star Formation Rates At 4 < Z < 7 In The Candels Goods-South Field, K. Duncan, C. J. Conselice, A. Mortlock, W. G. Hartley, Y. Guo, H. C. Ferguson, R. Davé, Y. Lu, J. Owensworth, M. L. N. Ashby, A. Dekel, M. Dickinson, S. Faber, M. Giavalisco, N. Grogin, Dale D. Kocevski, A. Koekemoer, R. S. Somerville, C. E. White

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We measure new estimates for the galaxy stellar mass function and star formation rates for samples of galaxies at z ∼ 4, 5, 6 and 7 using data in the CANDELS GOODS South field. The deep near-infrared observations allow us to construct the stellar mass function at z ≥ 6 directly for the first time. We estimate stellar masses for our sample by fitting the observed spectral energy distributions with synthetic stellar populations, including nebular line and continuum emission. The observed UV luminosity functions for the samples are consistent with previous observations; however, we find that the observed M_{UV …}

Keck-I Mosfire Spectroscopy Of Compact Star-Forming Galaxies At Z ≳ 2: High Velocity Dispersions In Progenitors Of Compact Quiescent Galaxies, Guillermo Barro, Jonathan R. Trump, David C. Koo, Avishai Dekel, Susan A. Kassin, Dale D. Kocevski, Sandra M. Faber, Arjen Van Der Wel, Yicheng Guo, Pablo G. Pérez-González, Elisa Toloba, Jerome J. Fang, Camilla Pacifici, Raymond Simons, Randy D. Campbell, Daniel Ceverino, Steven L. Finkelstein, Bob Goodrich, Marc Kassis, Anton M. Koekemoer, Nicholas P. Konidaris, Rachel C. Livermore, James E. Lyke, Bahram Mobasher, Hooshang Nayyeri, Michael Peth, Joel R. Primack, Luca Rizzi, Rachel S. Somerville, Gregory D. Wirth, Adi Zolotov

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present Keck-I MOSFIRE near-infrared spectroscopy for a sample of 13 compact star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at redshift 2 ≤ z ≤ 2.5 with star formation rates of SFR ~ 100 M _☉ yr^–1 and masses of log(M/M _☉) ~10.8. . . .

For the remainder of the abstract, please visit:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/795/2/145

The Bulge–Disc Decomposed Evolution Of Massive Galaxies At 1 < Z < 3 In Candels, V. A. Bruce, J. S. Dunlop, R. J. Mclure, M. Cirasuolo, F. Buitrago, R. A. A. Bowler, T. A. Targett, E. F. Bell, D. H. Mcintosh, A. Dekel, S. M. Faber, H. C. Ferguson, N. A. Grogin, W. Hartley, Dale D. Kocevski, A. M. Koekemoer, D. C. Zoo, E. J. Mcgrath

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present the results of a new and improved study of the morphological and spectral evolution of massive galaxies over the redshift range 1 < z < 3. Our analysis is based on a bulge–disc decomposition of 396 galaxies with M_* > 10¹¹ M_⊙ uncovered from the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)/IR imaging within the Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS) and UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) UDS survey fields. We find that, by modelling the H₁₆₀ image of each galaxy with a combination of a de Vaucouleurs bulge (Sérsic index n = 4) and an exponential disc (n = 1), we can then …

The Decomposed Bulge And Disc Size–Mass Relations Of Massive Galaxies At 1 < Z < 3 In Candels, V. A. Bruce, J. S. Dunlop, R. J. Mclure, M. Cirasuolo, F. Buitrago, R. A. A. Bowler, T. A. Targett, E. F. Bell, D. H. Mcintosh, A. Dekel, S. M. Faber, H. C. Ferguson, N. A. Grogin, W. Hartley, Dale D. Kocevski, A. M. Koekemoer, D. C. Koo, E. J. Mcgrath

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We have constructed a mass-selected sample of M_* > 10¹¹ M_⊙ galaxies at 1 < z < 3 in the CANDELS UKIDSS UDS and COSMOS fields and have decomposed these systems into their separate bulge and disc components according to their H₁₆₀-band morphologies. By extending this analysis to multiple bands, we have been able to conduct individual bulge and disc component SED fitting which has provided us with stellar-mass and star formation rate estimates for the separate bulge and disc components. Having utilized the new decomposed stellar-mass estimates, we confirm that the bulge components display a stronger size evolution than the discs. The median sizes of the bulge components is 3.09 ± 0.20 times smaller than similarly massive local galaxies over the …

Candels+3d-Hst: Compact Sfgs At Z ~ 2-3, The Progenitors Of The First Quiescent Galaxies, G. Barro, S. M. Faber, P. G. Pérez-González, C. Pacifici, J. R. Trump, D. C. Koo, S. Wuyts, Y. Guo, E. Bell, A. Dekel, L. Porter, J. Primack, H. Ferguson, M. L. N. Ashby, K. Caputi, D. Ceverino, D. Croton, G. G. Fazio, M. Giavalisco, L. Hsu, Dalibor D. Kocevski, A. Koekemoer, P. Kurcynski, P. Kollipara, J. Lee, D. H. Mcintosh, E. Mcgrath, C. Moody, R. Somerville, C. Papovich, M. Salvato, P. Santini, T. Tal, A. Van Der Wel, C. C. Williams, S. P. Willner, A. Zolotov

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We analyze the star-forming and structural properties of 45 massive (log(M/M _☉) >10) compact star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at 2 < z < 3 to explore whether they are progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies at z ~ 2. The optical/NIR and far-IR Spitzer/Herschel colors indicate that most compact SFGs are heavily obscured. Nearly half (47%) host an X-ray-bright active galactic nucleus (AGN). In contrast, only about 10% of other massive galaxies at that time host AGNs. Compact SFGs have centrally concentrated light profiles and spheroidal morphologies similar to quiescent galaxies and are thus strikingly different from other SFGs, which typically are disk-like and sometimes clumpy or irregular. Most compact …

The Gentle Growth Of Galaxies At High Redshifts In Overdense Environments, Emilio Romano-Díaz, Isaac Shlosman, Jun-Hwan Choi, Raphael Sadoun

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We have explored prevailing modes of galaxy growth for redshifts z ~ 6-14, comparing substantially overdense and normal regions of the universe, using high-resolution zoom-in cosmological simulations. Such rare overdense regions have been projected to host high-z quasars. We demonstrate that galaxies in such environments grow predominantly by a smooth accretion from cosmological filaments which dominates the mass input from major, intermediate, and minor mergers. We find that by z ~ 6, the accumulated galaxy mass fraction from mergers falls short by a factor of 10 of the cumulative accretion mass for galaxies in the overdense regions, and by …

The Progenitors Of The Compact Early-Type Galaxies At High Redshift, Christina C. Williams, Mauro Giavalisco, Paolo Cassata, Elena Tundo, Tommy Wiklind, Yicheng Guo, Bomee Lee, Guillermo Barro, Stijn Wuyts, Eric F. Bell, Christopher J. Conselice, Avishai Dekel, Sandra M. Faber, Henry C. Ferguson, Norman A. Grogin, Nimish Hathi, Kuang-Han Huang, Dalibor D. Kocevski, Anton M. Koekemoer, David C. Koo, Swara Ravindranath, Sarah Salimbeni

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We use GOODS and CANDELS images to identify progenitors of massive (M > 10¹⁰ M _☉) compact early-type galaxies (ETGs) at z ~ 1.6. Because merging and accretion increase the size of the stellar component of galaxies, if the progenitors are among known star-forming galaxies, these must be compact themselves. We select candidate progenitors among compact Lyman-break galaxies at z ~ 3 on the basis of their mass, star-formation rate (SFR), and central stellar density, and we find that these account for a large fraction of, and possibly all, compact ETGs at z ~ 1.6. We find that …

The Importance Of Major Mergers In The Build Up Of Stellar Mass In Brightest Cluster Galaxies At Z = 1, C. Lidman, G. Iacobuta, A. E. Bauer, L. F. Barrientos, P. Cerulo, W. J. Couch, L. Delaye, R. Demarco, E. Ellingson, A. J. Faloon, D. Gilbank, M. Huertas-Company, S. Mei, J. Meyers, A. Muzzin, A. Noble, J. Nantais, A. Rettura, P. Rosati, R. Sánchez-Janssen, V. Strazzullo, T. M. A. Webb, G. Wilson, Renbin Yan, H. K. C. Yee

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Recent independent results from numerical simulations and observations have shown that brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) have increased their stellar mass by a factor of almost 2 between z ∼ 0.9 and z ∼ 0.2. The numerical simulations further suggest that more than half this mass is accreted through major mergers. Using a sample of 18 distant galaxy clusters with over 600 spectroscopically confirmed cluster members between them, we search for observational evidence that major mergers do play a significant role. We find a major merger rate of 0.38 ± 0.14 mergers per Gyr at z ∼ 1. While the uncertainties, …