[94.11] Faint Field Galaxies from z$\sim$1 to 0.5 - New Merger Results from Keck AO and NIRC2

AAS 205th Meeting, 9-13 January 2005
Session 94 From Protogalaxies to Large Surveys: Tracing the Galaxy Evolution
Poster, Wednesday, January 12, 2005, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall

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[94.11] Faint Field Galaxies from z~1 to 0.5 - New Merger Results from Keck AO and NIRC2

M. Barczys, J.E. Larkin (UCLA), T.M. Glassman (IPAC), D. LaFreniere (UMontreal), K. Matthews, W.E. Althouse (Caltech), R.D. Campbell, A. Conrad (WMKO), E. Egami (UArizona), R.W. Goodrich, A. Honey (WMKO), S. Lin (Caltech), I.S. McLean (UCLA), D. Le Mignant (WMKO), G. Neugebauer, M. Sawicki, B.T. Soifer (Caltech), M. Spencer (WVU), D.M. Thompson (Caltech), P. Wizinowich (WMKO)

We have used the Keck Adaptive Optics System and its wide-field, near-infrared imager (NIRC2) to image nearly 300 faint field galaxies at high spatial resolution (50 to 80 milliarcseconds). The imaged galaxies lie within the isoplanatic regions of several natural AO guide stars, and are as faint as H\approx23 mag (Vega). In this sample, we find that over 20 companions within 2" (\leq 15 kpc at z ~ 0.6). Within 0.5 - 1.0", there is a three-fold overdensity of companions compared to random galaxy fields. Moreover, the relative magnitude of the galaxy pairs indicates that all are likely to be minor merger events. Unlike related optical studies, we find no evidence for major merger activity in this sample.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: barczys@astro.ucla.edu

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