GOODS-Herschel and CANDELS: The Morphologies of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies at z~2

Understand

Using deep 100-160 micron observations in GOODS-S from the GOODS-H survey, combined with HST/WFC3 NIR imaging from CANDELS, we present the first morphological analysis of a complete, FIR selected sample of 52 ULIRGs at z~2.

• We also make use of a comparison sample of galaxies without Herschel detections but with the same z and magnitude distribution.
• Our visual classifications of these two samples indicate that the fraction of objects with disk and spheroid morphologies is roughly the same but that there are significantly more mergers, interactions, and irregular galaxies among the ULIRGs.
• The combination of disk and irregular/interacting morphologies suggests that early stage interactions and minor mergers could play an important role in ULIRGs at z~2.