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Paper: Role of Galaxy Mergers in Cosmic Star Formation History
Volume: 408, The Starburst−AGN Connection
Page: 468
Authors: Shi, Y.; Rieke, G.; Lotz, J.; Perez-Gonzalez, P.G.
Abstract: We present a morphology study of intermediate-redshift (0.2< z <1.2) luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) and general field galaxies in the GOODS fields using a revised asymmetry measurement method. By taking careful account of the importance of the underlying sky-background structures, our new method does not suffer from systematic bias and offers small uncertainties. By redshifting local LIRGs and low-redshift GOODS galaxies to different higher redshifts, we have found that the redshift dependence of the galaxy asymmetry due to surface-brightness dimming is a function of the asymmetry itself, with larger corrections for more asymmetric objects. By applying appropriate asymmetry corrections, we have found that intermediate-redshift LIRGs generally show highly asymmetric morphologies, with implied merger fractions ~ 50% up to z=1.2, although they are slightly more symmetric than local LIRGs. For general field galaxies, we find an almost constant merger fraction (20-30%).
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