A survey of faint galaxy pairs

A sample of faint, V-magnitude selected, galaxy pairs, having physical separations less than ~20 h^-1^ kpc, is used to examine the rise in the merger rate with redshift and the statistical relations between close pairs and the field galaxy population. Redshifts have been obtained for a subset of 14 galaxies (V <= 22. 5) that are in close (θ < 6") pairs, along with a comparison sample of 38 field galaxies. Two-color photometry is available for 378 galaxies in the same fields. The average redshift of the V <= 22. 5 field population is 0. 36, statistically equal to the average redshift of 0. 42 for the pairs. The similarity of the two redshift distributions, DELTAz <= 0. 1, limits any differential luminosity enhancement of close pairs to less than half a magnitude. The pairs are somewhat bluer than the field and have nearly twice the average O II detection rate of the field, but the differences are not statistically significant. The field population has an angular correlation at separations of θ <= 6" higher than the inward extrapolation of ω (θ) is proportional to θ^-0. 8^, which may be a population of "companions" not present at the current epoch, or, luminosity enhancement of intrinsically faint galaxies in pairs. Physical pairs closer than 20 h^-1^ kpc comprise ~10% of the faint galaxies in our survey fields. The same physical separation applied to local galaxies finds only 4. 6% in pairs. If the rise in close, low relative velocity pairs with redshift is parameterized as (1+z) ᵐ^, then m = 3. 4 +/- 1. 0. If all the pairs merge, then the average galaxy mass would be about 32% smaller at z = 0. 4 than locally.