Related papers: Stellar Mergers Are Common
Galaxy mergers are predicted to trigger accretion onto the central supermassive black holes, with the highest rates occurring during final coalescence. Previously, we have shown elevated rates of both optical and mid-IR selected active…
Matsuoka & Kawara (2010) showed that the number density of the most massive galaxies (log M/M_sun=11.5-12.0) increases faster than that of the next massive group (log M/M_sun=11.0-11.5) during 0 < z < 1. This appears to be in contradiction…
The importance of the post-merger epoch in galaxy evolution has been well-documented, but post-mergers are notoriously difficult to identify. While the features induced by mergers can sometimes be distinctive, they are frequently missed by…
Mergers of galaxies are extremely violent events shaping their evolution. Such events are thought to trigger starbursts and, possibly, black hole accretion. Nonetheless, it is still not clear how to know the fate of a galaxy pair from the…
A redshift sample of 545 field galaxies is used to examine how the galaxy merger rate changes with redshift, and how mergers affect the observed properties of galaxies in close pairs. Close pairs are defined as those with projected…
With the rapid advancements in next-generation ground-based gravitational wave (GW) detectors, it is anticipated that $10^3$-$10^5$ binary neutron star (BNS) mergers per year will be detected, with a significant fraction accompanied by…
Neutron star (NS) mergers where both stars have negligible spins are commonly considered as the most likely ``standard'' case. In globular clusters, however, the majority of NSs have been spun up to millisecond (ms) periods and, based on…
Using the redMaPPer cluster catalogue based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometry, we investigate the importance of major mergers in the stellar mass build-up of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) between $0.08 \leq z \leq 0.50$.…
We present a study of the largest available sample of near-infrared selected (i.e., stellar mass selected) dynamically close pairs of galaxies at low redshifts ($z<0.3$). We combine this sample with new estimates of the major-merger pair…
Galaxy cluster mergers that exhibit clear dissociation between their dark matter, intracluster gas, and stellar components are great laboratories for probing dark matter properties. Mergers that are binary and in the plane of the sky have…
Stellar halos are the only major stellar component of disk galaxies that lack systematic observational characterization, yet they encode critical information about galaxy merger histories. We present the first systematic census of stellar…
We present deep composite luminosity functions in $B$, $g$, $V$, $r$, $i$ and $z$ for six clusters at $0.14 < z < 0.40$ observed with the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys. The luminosity functions reach to absolute…
The first Advanced LIGO observing run detected two black hole merger events with confidence and likely a third. Many groups organized to followup the events in the optical even though the strong theoretical prior that no optical emission…
Determining how galaxies accumulate stellar mass is paramount to understanding the Universe. Two primary mechanisms drive this process: star-formation (SF) & mergers. Our understanding of star formation, and to some degree the processes…
Most luminous infrared galaxies (LIGs) are closely interacting/merging systems rich in molecular gas. We study here the relationship between the stage of the galaxy-galaxy interactions, the molecular gas mass, and the star formation rate as…
Hierarchical assembly of early-type galaxies (Es and S0s) over an extended period of time will result in mixed-generation stellar populations. Here we look for signatures of composite populations in broad-band, near-ultraviolet (2500-3400…
We have performed detailed population synthesis on a large number (20 million) of binary systems in order to investigate the properties of massive double degenerate binaries. We have included new important results in our input physics in…
Galaxy major mergers are a potential mechanism for triggering active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity, but their role remains debated, particularly beyond the local Universe. We aim to shed light on the merger-AGN connection at $z=0.5$-$2$,…
Using galaxy groups identified in the Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), we compute the luminosity function for several subsamples of galaxies in groups. In all cases, the luminosity functions are well described by…
We aim to measure the major merger rate of star-forming galaxies at 0.9 < z <1.8, using close pairs identified from integral field spectroscopy (IFS). We use the velocity field maps obtained with SINFONI/VLT on the MASSIV sample, selected…