Galaxy Evolution in All Five CANDELS Fields and IllustrisTNG: Morphological, Structural, and the Major Merger Evolution to z ∼ 3
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A fundamental feature of galaxies is their structure, yet we are just now understanding the evolution of structural properties in quantitative ways. As such, we explore the quantitative nonparametric structural evolution of 16,778 galaxies up to z ∼ 3 in all five CANDELS fields, the largest collection of high-resolution images of distant galaxies to date. Our goal is to investigate how the structure, as opposed to size, surface brightness, or mass, changes with time. In particular, we investigate how the concentration and asymmetry of light evolve in the rest-frame optical. To interpret our galaxy structure measurements, we also run and analyze 250 simulation realizations from IllustrisTNG to determine the timescale of mergers for the CAS system. We measure that from z = 0–3, the median asymmetry merger timescale is 0.50 − 0.18 + 0.33 Gyr, and find that it does not vary with redshift. Using these data, we find that galaxies become progressively asymmetric at a given mass at higher redshifts, and we derive merger rates that scale as ∼ 1 + z 1.87 ± 0.04 Gyr−1, which agrees well with recent machine-learning and galaxy-pair approaches, removing previous inconsistencies. We also show that far-infrared selected galaxies that are invisible to the Hubble Space Telescope have a negligible effect on our measurements. We also find that galaxies are more concentrated at higher redshifts. We interpret this as a sign that their formation occurs from a smaller initial galaxy that later grows into a larger one through mergers, consistent with the size growth of galaxies from the inside out, suggesting that the centers are the oldest parts of most galaxies.
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Whitney et al. (2021) used galaxies from the TNG simulation to calibrate the observability timescale of the so-called CAS parameters.
“More recently Whitney et al. (2021) used galaxies from the TNG simulation to calibrate the observability timescale of the so-called CAS parameters.”
From The Dawes Review 10: The impact of deep learning for the analysis of galaxy surveys (2023) · cites this paper as Whitney et al. (2021)
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Ferreira, L., Adams, N., Conselice, C. J., Sazonova, E., Austin, D., Caruana, J., Ferrari, F., Verma, A., Trussler, J., Broadhurst, T. J., et al. (2022) · The Astrophysical Journal Letters · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ac947c · Cited by 151 · see citing works
“What we find is that there is no great distinction between the disks and the spheroids, but we do find that the peculiars are in the region of high asymmetry where mergers are located (Conselice et al. 2000; Whitney et al. 2021).”
BackgroundMethodSelf-citationThe JWST Hubble Sequence: The Rest-frame Optical Evolution of Galaxy Structure at 1.5 < z < 6.5
Ferreira, L., Conselice, C. J., Sazonova, E., Ferrari, F., Caruana, J., Tohill, C.-B., Lucatelli, G., Adams, N., Irodotou, D., Marshall, M. A., et al. (2023) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acec76 · Cited by 120 · see citing works
Self-citationGilli, R., Norman, C., Calura, F., Vito, F., Decarli, R., Marchesi, S., Iwasawa, K., Comastri, A., Lanzuisi, G., Pozzi, F., et al. (2022) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202243708 · Cited by 110 · see citing works
EPOCHS VI: the size and shape evolution of galaxies since z ∼ 8 with JWST Observations
Ormerod, K., Conselice, C. J., Adams, N., Harvey, T., Austin, D., Trussler, J., Ferreira, L., Caruana, J., Lucatelli, G., Li, Q., et al. (2023) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stad3597 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Dawes Review 10: The impact of deep learning for the analysis of galaxy surveys
Huertas-Company, M., & Lanusse, F. (2023) · Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia · doi:10.1017/pasa.2022.55 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
“More recently Whitney et al. (2021) used galaxies from the TNG simulation to calibrate the observability timescale of the so-called CAS parameters.”
MethodRicci, C., Ananna, T. T., Temple, M. J., Urry, C. M., Koss, M., Trakhtenbrot, B., Ueda, Y., Stern, D. K., Bauer, F. E., Treister, E., et al. (2022) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac8e67 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
“This, combined with the larger number of AGNs in mergers at higher redshifts with respect to z; 0 (e.g., Mortlock et al. 2013; Whitney et al. 2021), could explain the increase of the fraction of obscured sources with redshift (e.g., La Franca et al. 2005; Treister & Urry 2006; Ueda et al. 2014;…”
BackgroundEarly Results From GLASS-JWST. XII. The Morphology of Galaxies at the Epoch of Reionization
Treu, T., Calabrò, A., Castellano, M., Leethochawalit, N., Merlin, E., Fontana, A., Yang, L., Morishita, T., Trenti, M., Dressler, A. M., et al. (2023) · The Astrophysical Journal Letters · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ac9283 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
“…and merger fractions have been investigated in the optical rest frame up to redshift z∼ 3 through imaging in the F814W, F105W, F125W, and F160W HST filters (Bond et al. 2011; Law et al. 2012; Morishita et al. 2014; van der Wel et al. 2014; Huertas-Company et al. 2016; Whitney et al. 2021).”
MethodBottrell, C., Yesuf, H. M., Popping, G., Omori, K. C., Tang, S., Ding, X., Pillepich, A., Nelson, D., Eisert, L., Gao, H., et al. (2023) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stad2971 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Conselice, C. J., Mundy, C. J., Ferreira, L., & Duncan, K. J. (2022) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac9b1a · Cited by 56 · see citing works
“Major mergers have been the primary method for measuring the merger history (e.g., M17, Duncan et al. 2019; Whitney et al. 2021), yet this is only one way in which galaxies can assemble through the merger process.”
MethodResultSelf-citationJacobs, C., Glazebrook, K., Calabrò, A., Treu, T., Nanayakkara, T., Jones, T. A., Merlin, E., Abraham, R. G., Stevens, A. R. H., Vulcani, B., et al. (2023) · The Astrophysical Journal Letters · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/accd6d · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Duan, Q., Conselice, C. J., Li, Q., Austin, D., Harvey, T., Adams, N., Duncan, K. J., Trussler, J., Ferreira, L., Westcott, L., et al. (2025) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/staf638 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Self-citationGuzmán-Ortega, A., Rodríguez-Gómez, V., Snyder, G. F., Chamberlain, K., & Hernquist, L. (2022) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stac3334 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
The Structure and Morphology of Galaxies during the Epoch of Reionization Revealed by JWST
Sun, W., Ho, L. C., Zhuang, M.-Y., 马, C. 超. M., 陈, C. 昌. C., & Li, R. (2024) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acf1f6 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
“After their initial formation, the continued accumulation of gas fuels star formation in the outer regions of galaxies ( e.g., Whitney et al. 2021 ) .”
BackgroundInfluentialBottrell, C., Hani, M. H., Teimoorinia, H., Patton, D. R., & Ellison, S. L. (2021) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stab3717 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Bluck, A. F. L., Conselice, C. J., Ormerod, K., Piotrowska, J. M., Adams, N., Austin, D., Caruana, J., Duncan, K. J., Ferreira, L., Goubert, P. H., et al. (2024) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad0a98 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Self-citationFerreira, L., Bickley, R. W., Ellison, S. L., Patton, D. R., Byrne-Mamahit, S., Wilkinson, S., Bottrell, C., Fabbro, S., Gwyn, S., & McConnachie, A. W. (2024) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stae1885 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Self-citationTohill, C.-B., Bamford, S. P., Conselice, C. J., Ferreira, L., Harvey, T., Adams, N., & Austin, D. (2024) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad17b8 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
“The reason for matching our JWST sample to HST imaging is so that we can use the reliable and well tested redshifts, photometry, mass and star formation rate (SFR) measurements that have been derived and utilised in previous works (Duncan et al. 2019; Whitney et al. 2021).”
MethodSelf-citationZhuang, M.-Y., Li, J., & Shen, Y. G. (2024) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad1517 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Yesuf, H. M., Ho, L. C., & Faber, S. M. (2021) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac27a7 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Evolution of Nonparametric Morphology of Galaxies in the JWST CEERS Field at z ≃ 0.8–3.0
Yao, Y., Song, J., Kong, X., Fang, G., Zhang, H.-X., & Chen, X. (2023) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ace7b5 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
BASS. XXXIII. Swift-BAT Blazars and Their Jets through Cosmic Time
Marcotulli, L., Ajello, M., Urry, C. M., Paliya, V. S., Koss, M., Oh, K., Madejski, G. M., Ueda, Y., Baloković, M., Trakhtenbrot, B., et al. (2022) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac937f · Cited by 22 · see citing works
“In the chaotic high-redshift universe, merger fractions have been found to be larger for highly massive galaxies even at z> 3 (e.g., Bluck et al. 2009; Whitney et al. 2021).”
BackgroundYu, S.-Y., Cheng, C., Pan, Y. X., Sun, F., & Li, Y. A. (2023) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202346140 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Galaxy merger challenge: A comparison study between machine learning-based detection methods
Margalef-Bentabol, B., Wang, L., Marca, A. L., Blanco-Prieto, C., Chudy, D., Sánchez, H. D., Goulding, A. D., Guzmán-Ortega, A., Martin, G., Pearson, W., et al. (2024) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348239 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Self-citationMarca, A. L., Margalef-Bentabol, B., Wang, L., Gao, F., Goulding, A. D., Martin, G., Rodríguez-Gómez, V., Trager, S. C., Yang, G., Davé, R., et al. (2024) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348188 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Ferreira, L., Conselice, C. J., Kuchner, U., & Tohill, C.-B. (2022) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac66ea · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“We know that mergers are more common in the past (e.g., Mundy et al. 2017; Duncan et al. 2019; Ferreira et al. 2020; Whitney et al. 2021), and here we find further evidence that this is also the case for peculiar galaxies, indicating that the nature behind these disturbed morphologies at earlier…”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationMartorano, M., van der Wel, A., Bell, E. F., Franx, M., Whitaker, K. E., Nersesian, A., Price, S. H., Baes, M., Suess, K. A., Nelson, E. J., et al. (2023) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acf716 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“Both nonparametric and parametric methods have been widely used to examine the galaxy structure; see Conselice ( 2014 ) for a comprehensive review on nonparametric methods and Whitney et al. ( 2021 ) for a recent application to high-redshift galaxies.”
MethodPolletta, M. D. C., Frye, B., Garuda, N., Willner, S. P., Berta, S., Kneißl, R., Dole, H. A., Jansen, R. A., Lehnert, M. D., Cohen, S. H., et al. (2024) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202450671 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Self-citationWilkinson, S., Ellison, S. L., Bottrell, C., Bickley, R. W., Byrne-Mamahit, S., Ferreira, L., & Patton, D. R. (2024) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stae287 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Self-citationEPOCHS. XI. The Structure and Morphology of Galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization to z ∼ 12.5
Westcott, L., Conselice, C. J., Harvey, T., Austin, D., Adams, N., Ferrari, F., Ferreira, L., Trussler, J., Li, Q., Rusakov, V., et al. (2025) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/adb968 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Self-citationBarrientos, D., van der Wel, A., Baes, M., Grand, R. J. J., Kapoor, A. U., Camps, P., de Graaff, A., Straatman, C. M. S., & Bezanson, R. (2023) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stad1771 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
“…properties derived from the multiwavelenght photometry and also spatially resolved imaging (Rodriguez-Gomez et al. 2019; Bignone et al. 2020; Kapoor et al. 2021; Whitney et al. 2021; Camps et al. 2022; Guzmán-Ortega et al. 2022), to look at the morphology and sizes of the simulated galaxies.”
BackgroundThe molecular gas resolved by ALMA in the low-metallicity merging dwarf galaxy Haro 11
Gao, Y., Gu, Q., Shi, Y., Zhou, L., Bao, M., Yu, X., Zhang, Z.-Y., Wang, T., Madden, S. C., Hayes, M., et al. (2022) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202142309 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Lopsided galactic disks in IllustrisTNG
Łokas, E. L. (2022) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202142845 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Conselice, C. J., Basham, J. T. F., Bettaney, D. O., Ferreira, L., Adams, N., Harvey, T., Ormerod, K., Caruana, J., Bluck, A. F. L., Li, Q., et al. (2024) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stae1180 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Self-citationSize and Spectroscopic Evolution of HectoMAP Quiescent Galaxies
Damjanov, I., Sohn, J., Geller, M. J., Utsumi, Y., & Dell’Antonio, I. (2023) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aca88f · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“The central population age thus can be consistent with passive evolution models even though there is size growth (Whitney et al. 2021).”
BackgroundRen, J., Li, N., Liu, F.-S., Cui, Q., Fu, M., & Zheng, X.-Z. (2023) · Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acfeee · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Calibrating Nonparametric Morphological Indicators from JWST Images for Galaxies over 0.5 < z < 3
Ren, J., Liu, F. S., Li, N., Cui, Q., Zhao, P., Li, Y., Song, Q., Yesuf, H. M., & Zheng, X. (2024) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad4117 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“…investigate galaxy morphological properties and mergers (Lotz et al. 2004; Freeman et al. 2013; Wen et al. 2014; Pawlik et al. 2016), and understand the fundamental evolutionary processes that shape galaxy formation and evolution (e.g. Conselice et al. 2005; Lotz et al. 2008; Whitney et al. 2021).”
BackgroundBaes, M., Camps, P., & Matsumoto, K. (2022) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202244521 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Wang, J.-H., Li, Z., Zhuang, M.-Y., Ho, L. C., & Lai, L.-M. (2024) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348934 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Cardona-Torres, L., Aretxaga, I., Montaña, A., Zavala, J. A., & Faber, S. M. (2022) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stac2868 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Kolesnikov, I., Sampaio, V. M., de Carvalho, R. R., & Conselice, C. J. (2025) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/staf625 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Self-citationMock Observations: Morphological Analysis of Galaxies in TNG100 Simulations
Gong, J.-Y., Lin, W., Tang, L., & Lan, Y. (2025) · The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · doi:10.3847/1538-4365/add5e4 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
H i asymmetries in spatially resolved simba galaxies
Hank, N., Verheijen, M. A. W., Blyth, S.-L., Davé, R., Oman, K. A., Deg, N., & Glowacki, M. (2025) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/staf878 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Xu, K., & Jing, Y. (2025) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/add5f6 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“Estimating galaxy merger rates typically involves identifying galaxy pairs and determining merger timescales as a function of separation distance, where our model with arbitrary starting radii can provide valuable input ( L. Ferreira et al. 2020; A. Whitney et al. 2021 ) .”
Galaxy merger challenge: A comparison study between machine learning-based detection methods
Margalef-Bentabol, B., Wang, L., Marca, A. L., Blanco-Prieto, C., Chudy, D., Sánchez, H. D., Goulding, A. D., Guzmán-Ortega, A., M. Huertas-Company, Martin, G., et al. (2024) · Springer Link (Chiba Institute of Technology) · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348239/pdf · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Self-citationEvolution of Size, Mass, and Density of Galaxies Since Cosmic Dawn
Gupta, R. P. (2025) · Galaxies · doi:10.3390/galaxies13050115 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Seen primarily through HST up to z ∼ 2.8, galaxies appear to become progressively smaller, irregular and peculiar with increasing redshift in the Λ CDM paradigm [57–64].”
InfluentialSpatial field reconstruction with INLA
Smole, M., Rino-Silvestre, J., González-Gaitán, S., & Stalevski, M. (2022) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202244481 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Smith, F. M., & Thacker, R. J. (2024) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stae1759 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
capivara : a spectral-based segmentation method for IFU data cubes
de Souza, R. S., Dahmer-Hahn, L. G., Shen, S., Chies-Santos, A. L., Chen, M., Rahna, P. T., Coelho, P., Riffel, R., Ye, R., & Tahmasebzadeh, B. (2025) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/staf688 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Kurzner, M. M., Côté, P., Ferrarese, L., Wang, K.-X., Peng, E., Wilkinson, S., Roediger, J., Spengler, C., Brown, T., Liu, C.-Z., et al. (2025) · Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ae1616 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“This system has been successfully applied to both simulated and observed galaxy populations ( e.g., K. M. Hambleton et al. 2011; A. Whitney et al. 2021; S. Wilkinson et al. 2022, 2024; L. Ferreira et al. 2023 ) to explore properties such as star formation and degree of morphological transformation…”
The debiased morphological transformations of galaxies since z = 3 in CANDELS
Salvador, D., Cerulo, P., Valenzuela, K. X. R., Demarco, R., Oyarzo, F., & Gatica, C. (2024) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202347522 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Maltby, D. T., Almaini, O., Wild, V., Taylor, E., Rowlands, K., de Lisle, T., Hewitt, G., Skarbinski, M., Dunlop, J. S., Carnall, A. C., et al. (2026) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stag987
Galaxy Spiral Arm Count versus Concentration and Mass: A First Look with Euclid
Smith, B. J., Bergner, S., Giroux, M. L., & Struck, C. (2026) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ae7d22
- Authors
- Whitney, A., Ferreira, L., Conselice, C. J., & Duncan, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Nottingham (GB)
- Leiden University (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Whitney, A.
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2021-10-01
- Volume
- 919
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 139
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4357
- OpenAlex
- W3204879588
- Cited by
- 54
- References
- 86
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 5.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Astrophysical Journal (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NAS 526555)
- Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
- Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/T000414/1)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
- Keywords
- galaxy structural evolution, galaxy morphology, galaxy concentration, galaxy asymmetry, major mergers, merger timescales, merger rate, CANDELS fields, IllustrisTNG simulations, high-redshift galaxies, galaxy size growth, far-infrared galaxies, galaxy formation
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