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Title:
Galaxy mergers and gravitational lens statistics
Authors:
Rix, Hans-Walter; Maoz, Dan; Turner, Edwin L.; Fukugita, Masataka
Affiliation:
AA(Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, US), AB(Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, US), AC(Princeton Univ. Observatory, Princeton, NJ, US), AD(Princeton Univ. Observatory, Princeton, NJ, US)
Publication:
Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 435, no. 1, p. 49-54 (ApJ Homepage)
Publication Date:
11/1994
Category:
Astronomy
Origin:
STI
NASA/STI Keywords:
ASTRONOMICAL MODELS, COSMOLOGY, ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES, GALACTIC CLUSTERS, GRAVITATIONAL LENSES, INTERACTING GALAXIES, STATISTICAL ANALYSIS, HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, MATHEMATICAL MODELS, SKY SURVEYS (ASTRONOMY), SPACEBORNE ASTRONOMY
DOI:
10.1086/174792
Bibliographic Code:
1994ApJ...435...49R

Abstract

We investigate the impact of hierarchical galaxy merging on the statistics of gravitational lensing of distant sources. Since no definite theoretical predictions for the merging history of luminous galaxies exist, we adopt a parameterized prescription, which allows us to adjust the expected number of pieces comprising a typical present galaxy at z approximately 0.65. The existence of global parameter relations for elliptical galaxies and constraints on the evolution of the phase space density in dissipationless mergers, allow us to limit the possible evolution of galaxy lens properties under merging. We draw two lessons from implementing this lens evolution into statistical lens calculations: (1) The total optical depth to multiple imaging (e.g., of quasars) is quite insensitive to merging. (2) Merging leads to a smaller mean separation of observed multiple images. Because merging does not reduce drastically the expected lensing frequency, it cannot make lambda-dominated cosmologies compatible with the existing lensing observations. A comparison with the data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Snapshot Survey shows that models with little or no evolution of the lens population are statistically favored over strong merging scenarios. A specific merging scenario proposed to Toomre can be rejected (95% level) by such a comparison. Some versions of the scenario proposed by Broadhurst, Ellis, & Glazebrook are statistically acceptable.

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