Investigating merging galaxies by using Pan-STARRS images

Abstract

Aims. We studied the r -, z -, and y -band images of merging galaxies from the observations of the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). The merging galaxies were selected from our merging catalog that was created by checking the images of the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey 2 from the observations of the Canada France Hawaii Telescope. Methods. By using the homomorphic-aperture, we determined the photometric results of these merging systems. To obtain accurate photometry, we calibrated the Pan-STARRS r -, z -, and y -band data to match the results of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 9. We also investigated the stellar masses of the merging galaxies by comparing the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer 3.4 µm emission with the calibrated y -band data.Results. We present a catalog of the r -, z -, and y -band photometric results for 4698 merging galaxies. For extended sources, our results suggest that the homomorphic-aperture method can obtain more reasonable results than the Desktop Virtual Observatory photometry. We derived new relations between the Pan-STARRS y -band luminosities and the stellar masses of the merging galaxies. Our results show that the stellar masses of the merging galaxies range from 10 8 to 10 13 M ; some of the dry mergers could be as massive as 10 13 M .