The Structures of Distant Galaxies - III: The Merger History of over 20,000 Massive Galaxies at z < 1.2

Abstract

Utilizing deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging from the two largest field galaxy surveys, the Extended Groth Strip (EGS) and the COSMOS survey, we examine the structural properties, and derive the merger history for 21,902 galaxies with M_*>10^{10} M_0 at z<1.2. We examine the structural CAS parameters of these galaxies, deriving merger fractions, at 0.2 10^{10} M_0, the merger fraction can be parameterised by f_m = f_0*(1+z)^m with the power-law slope m=2.3+/-0.4. By using the best available z = 0 prior the slope increases to m=3.8+/-0.2, showing how critical the measurement of local merger properties are for deriving the evolution of the merger fraction. We furthermore show that the merger fraction derived through structure is roughly a factor of 3-6 higher than pair fractions. Based on the latest cosmological simulations of mergers we show that this ratio is predicted, and that both methods are likely tracing the merger fraction and rate properly. We calculate, utilising merger time scales from simulations, and previously published merger fractions that the merger rate of galaxies with M_*>10^{10} M_0 increases linearly between z = 0.7 and z = 3, and that a typical M_*>10^{10} M_0 galaxy undergoes between 1-2 major mergers at z<1.2.