{"paper":{"title":"Major mergers are not significant drivers of star formation or morphological transformation around the epoch of peak cosmic star formation","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.GA","authors_text":"A. Mortlock, C. J. Conselice, E. K. Lofthouse, S. Kaviraj, W. Hartley","submitted_at":"2016-08-11T20:00:05Z","abstract_excerpt":"We investigate the contribution of major mergers (mass ratios $>1:5$) to stellar mass growth and morphological transformations around the epoch of peak cosmic star formation ($z\\sim2$). We visually classify a complete sample of massive (M $>$ 10$^{10}$M$_{\\odot}$) galaxies at this epoch, drawn from the CANDELS survey, into late-type galaxies, major mergers, spheroids and disturbed spheroids which show morphological disturbances. Given recent simulation work, which indicates that recent ($<$0.3-0.4 Gyr) major-merger remnants exhibit clear tidal features in such images, we use the fraction of di"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"1608.03892","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}