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Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): probing the merger histories of massive galaxies via stellar populations

Ferreras, I.; Hopkins, A.M.; Gunawardhana, M.L.P.; Sansom, A.E.; Owers, M.S.; Driver, S.; Davies, L.; Robotham, A.; Taylor, E.N.; Konstantopoulos, I.; Brough, S.; Norberg, P.; Croom, S.; Loveday, J.; Wang, L.; Bremer, M.

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): probing the merger histories of massive galaxies via stellar populations Thumbnail


Authors

I. Ferreras

A.M. Hopkins

M.L.P. Gunawardhana

A.E. Sansom

M.S. Owers

S. Driver

L. Davies

A. Robotham

E.N. Taylor

I. Konstantopoulos

S. Brough

S. Croom

J. Loveday

L. Wang

M. Bremer



Abstract

The merging history of galaxies can be traced with studies of dynamically close pairs. These consist of a massive primary galaxy and a less massive secondary (or satellite) galaxy. The study of the stellar populations of secondary (lower mass) galaxies in close pairs provides a way to understand galaxy growth by mergers. Here we focus on systems involving at least one massive galaxy – with stellar mass above 1011M⊙ in the highly complete Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Our working sample comprises 2692 satellite galaxy spectra (0.1 ≤ z ≤ 0.3). These spectra are combined into high S/N stacks, and binned according to both an ‘internal’ parameter, the stellar mass of the satellite galaxy (i.e. the secondary), and an ‘external’ parameter, selecting either the mass of the primary in the pair, or the mass of the corresponding dark matter halo. We find significant variations in the age of the populations with respect to environment. At fixed mass, satellites around the most massive galaxies are older and possibly more metal-rich, with age differences ∼1–2 Gyr within the subset of lower mass satellites (∼1010 M⊙). These variations are similar when stacking with respect to the halo mass of the group where the pair is embedded. The population trends in the lower mass satellites are consistent with the old stellar ages found in the outer regions of massive galaxies.

Citation

Ferreras, I., Hopkins, A., Gunawardhana, M., Sansom, A., Owers, M., Driver, S., …Bremer, M. (2017). Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): probing the merger histories of massive galaxies via stellar populations. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 468(1), 607-619. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx503

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 24, 2017
Online Publication Date Feb 28, 2017
Publication Date Jun 11, 2017
Deposit Date May 9, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 468
Issue 1
Pages 607-619
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx503

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Copyright Statement
This article has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2017 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.





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