1. Minor Merger Growth in Action: JWST Detects Faint Blue Companions around Massive Quiescent Galaxies at 0.5 ≤ z ≤ 3.0
- Author
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Katherine A. Suess, Christina C. Williams, Brant Robertson, Zhiyuan Ji, Benjamin D. Johnson, Erica Nelson, Stacey Alberts, Kevin Hainline, Francesco D’Eugenio, Hannah Übler, Marcia Rieke, George Rieke, Andrew J. Bunker, Stefano Carniani, Stephane Charlot, Daniel J. Eisenstein, Roberto Maiolino, Daniel P. Stark, Sandro Tacchella, and Chris Willott
- Subjects
Galaxy evolution ,Galaxy formation ,Galaxy structure ,Elliptical galaxies ,High-redshift galaxies ,Astrophysics ,QB460-466 - Abstract
Minor mergers are thought to drive the structural evolution of massive quiescent galaxies; however, existing Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging is primarily sensitive to stellar mass ratios ≳1:10. Here, we report the discovery of a large population of low-mass companions within 35 kpc of known $\mathrm{log}{M}_{* }/{M}_{\odot }\gtrsim 10.5$ quiescent galaxies at 0.5 ≤ z ≤ 3. While massive companions like those identified by HST are rare, JWST imaging from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey reveals that the average massive quiescent galaxy hosts approximately five nearby companions with stellar mass ratios
- Published
- 2023
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