CFRS XI: High-redshift field galaxies morphology

Structural parameters have been derived by fitting multicomponent models and the results confirm two phenomena seen in a smaller sample of galaxies imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope. First, 11+/-3% of the galaxies lie off the normal locus of color versus bulge fraction B/T. This class of objects ("blue nucleated galaxies," or BNGs) was identified using HST observations (Schade et al. 1995ApJ...451L...1S, hereafter CFRS IX), and it was shown that they are associated with peculiar/asymmetric structure and merger/interactions.

The observed frequency of BNGs in this sample is 14+/-4% 0.5<z<1.2 and 6^+6^_-3_% at 0.2<z<0.5, but the true frequency is likely to be a factor ~2 higher after corrections are made for the effect of asymmetric/peculiar structures. Galaxy disks at 0.5<z<1.1 are found to have a mean rest-frame, inclination-corrected central surface brightness of {mu}_AB_(B)=19.8+/-0.1mag/arcsec^2^, ~1.6mag brighter than the Freeman (1970ApJ...160..811F) value.