Galaxy Zoo: Multi-Mergers and the Millennium Simulation

Journal article

We present a catalogue of 39 multiple-mergers found using the mergers catalogue of the Galaxy Zoo project for $z<0.1$ and compare them to corresponding semi-analytical galaxies from the Millennium Simulation. We estimate the (volume-limited) multi-merger fraction of the local Universe using our sample and find it to be at least two orders of magnitude less than binary-mergers - in good agreement with the simulations (especially the Munich group). We then investigate the properties of galaxies in binary- and multi-mergers (morphologies, colours, stellar masses and environment) and compare these results with those predicted by the semi-analytical galaxies. We find that multi-mergers favour galaxies with properties typical of elliptical morphologies and that this is in qualitative agreement with the models. Studies of multi-mergers thus provide an independent (and largely corroborating) test of the Millennium semi-analytical models.

Authors: Darg, D; Kaviraj, S; Lintott, C; Schawinski, K; Silk, J

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Volume: 416
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 1745-1755
• Publication date: 2010-12-19
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.18964.x
• EISSN: 1365-2966
• ISSN: 0035-8711
• Language: English
• Keywords: astro-ph.GA