Dynamically Close Galaxy Pairs and Merger Rate Evolution in the CNOC2 Redshift Survey

Department of Physics, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON, K9J 7B8, Canada Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, PO Box 3055, Victoria, BC, V8W 3P6, Canada Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3H8, Canada Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara St., Pasadena, CA 91101 Princeton University Observatory, Princeton, NJ, 08544-1001 and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Departamento de Astronomia y Astrofisica, Facultad de Fisica, Casilla 306, Santiago 22, Chile Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 Department of Physics, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, Victoria, BC V8X 4M6, Canada California Institute of Technology, 320-47, Pasadena, CA 91125 W. M. Keck Observatory, Kamuela, HI 96743 Hubble Fellow Visiting Astronomer, Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, which is operated by the National Research Council of Canada, le Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, and the University of Hawaii.