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arXiv · 1210.2362

Cosmic Evolution of Star-Formation Enhancement in Close Major-Merger Galaxy Pairs Since z = 1

Abstract

The infrared (IR) emission of M_* galaxies (10^{10.4} < M_{star} < 10^{11.0} M_\sun) in galaxy pairs, derived using data obtained in Herschel (PEP/HerMES) and Spitzer (S-COSMOS) surveys, is compared to that of single disk galaxies in well matched control samples to study the cosmic evolution of the star-formation enhancement induced by galaxy-galaxy interaction. Both the mean IR SED and mean IR luminosity of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) in SFG+SFG (S+S) pairs in the redshift bin of 0.6 < z < 1 are consistent with no star-formation enhancement. SFGs in S+S pairs in a lower redshift bin of 0.2 < z < 0.6 show marginal evidence for a weak star-formation enhancement. Together with the significant and strong sSFR enhancement shown by SFGs in a local sample of S+S pairs (obtained using previously published Spitzer observations), our results reveal a trend for the star-formation enhancement in S+S pairs to decrease with increasing redshift. Between z=0 and z=1, this decline of interaction-induced star-formation enhancement occurs in parallel with the dramatic increase (by a factor of ~10) of the sSFR of single SFGs, both can be explained by the higher gas fraction in higher z disks. SFGs in mixed pairs (S+E pairs) do not show any significant star-formation enhancement at any redshift. The difference between SFGs in S+S pairs and in S+E pairs suggests a modulation of the sSFR by the inter-galactic medium IGM in the dark matter halos (DMH) hosting these pairs.

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BibTeXRIS

C. K. Xu, D. L. Shupe, M. B'ethermin, H. Aussel, S. Berta, J. Bock, C. Bridge, A. Conley, A. Cooray, D. Elbaz, A. Franceschini, E. Le Floc'h, N. Lu, D. Lutz, B. Magnelli, G. Marsden, S. J. Oliver, F. Pozzi, L. Riguccini, B. Schulz, N. Scoville, M. Vaccari, J. D. Vieira, L. Wang, M. Zemcov. 2012-10-08. Cosmic Evolution of Star-Formation Enhancement in Close Major-Merger Galaxy Pairs Since z = 1. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x%2F760%2F1%2F72

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