Eight gigayears of galaxy mergers [Elektronische Ressource] / presented by Aday Robaina Rapisarda

Dissertation in Astronomysubmitted to theCombined Faculties for the Natural Sciences and for Mathematicsof the Ruperto-Carola University of Heidelberg, Germany.for the degree ofDoctor of Natural Sciencespresented byLicenciado D. Aday Robaina Rapisardaborn in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, SpainOral examination: 25th February 2010Eight Gigayears ofofGalaxy MergersReferees: Prof. Dr. Eric F. BellProf. Dr. Klaus MeisenheimeriAbstractGalaxy interactions are expected to play a crucial role in the build–up of stellar mass in anycold dark matter cosmology. Of particular interest are the mergers between systems of acomparable mass, as they are predicted to be one of the main modes of galaxy growth andhave a crucial impact in the shaping of galaxy morphologies and dynamics. In this thesisI study two key aspects of the role that mergers play in galaxy evolution: a)What is thecontribution of major galaxy interactions to the star formation history of the Universe atz <1?, and b) How important are galaxy interactions for the build–up of the massive end oftheredsequence? ToanswerthefirstquestionIusephotometricredshifts,stellarmassesandUVstarformationratesfromCOMBO-17,24μmstarformationratesfrom Spitzerandgalaxymorphologiesfrom two deep Hubble Space Telescope cosmologicalsurvey fields to study theenhancement in star formation activity as a function of galaxy separation.