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تسجيل مستخدم جديدThe coordinated key role of wet, mixed, and dry major mergers in the buildup of massive early-type galaxies at z<~1
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تأليف
M. Carmen Eliche-Moral
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Hierarchical models predict that massive early-type galaxies (mETGs) derive from the most massive and violent merging sequences occurred in the Universe. However, the role of wet, mixed, and dry major mergers in the assembly of mETGs is questioned by some recent observations. We have developed a semi-analytical model to test the feasibility of the major-merger origin hypothesis for mETGs, just accounting for the effects on galaxy evolution of the major mergers strictly reported by observations. The model proves that it is feasible to reproduce the observed number density evolution of mETGs since z~1, just accounting for the coordinated effects of wet/mixed/dry major mergers. It can also reconcile the different assembly redshifts derived by hierarchical models and by mass downsizing data for mETGs, just considering that a mETG observed at a certain redshift is not necessarily in place since then. The model predicts that wet major mergers have controlled the mETGs buildup since z~1, although dry and mixed mergers have also played an essential role in it. The bulk of this assembly took place at 0.7<z<1, being nearly frozen at z<~0.7 due to the negligible number of major mergers occurred per existing mETG since then. The model suggests that major mergers have been the main driver for the observational migration of mass from the massive end of the blue galaxy cloud to that of the red sequence in the last ~8 Gyr.
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Hierarchical models predict that present-day massive early-type galaxies (mETGs) have finished their assembly at a quite late cosmic epoch (z~0.5), conflicting directly with galaxy mass-downsizing. In Eliche-Moral et al. (2010), we presented a semi-a
nalytical model that predicts the increase by a factor of ~2.5 observed in the number density of mETGs since z~1 to the present, just accounting for the effects of the major mergers strictly-reported by observations. Here, we describe the relative, coordinated role of wet, mixed, and dry major mergers in driving this assembly. Accordingly to observations, the model predicts that: 1) wet major mergers have controlled the mETGs buildup since z~1, although dry and mixed mergers have also contributed significantly to it; 2) the bulk of this assembly takes place during the ~1.4 Gyr time-period elapsed at 0.7<z<1, being nearly frozen at z<~0.7; 3) this frostbite can be explained just accounting for the observational decrease of the major merger fraction since z~0.7, implying that major mergers (and, in particular, dry events) have contributed negligibly to the mETGs assembly during the last ~6.3 Gyr; and 4) major mergers are responsible for doubling the stellar mass at the massive-end of the red sequence since z~1. The most striking model prediction is that at least ~87% of the mETGs existing at z~1 are not the passively-evolved, high-z counterparts of present-day mETGs, but their gas-poor progenitors instead. This implies that <~5% of present-day mETGs have been really in place since z~1. The model derives a redshift of final assembly for present-day mETGs in agreement with hierarchical models (z~0.5), reproducing at the same time the observed buildup of mETGs at z<~1.(Abridged)
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