Minor (squares), major (dots), and major + minor (triangles) merger fraction of galaxies for  kpc as a function of redshift. The points are shifted when necessary to avoid overlap. The z error bars in the total merger fraction mark the redshift range spanned by VVDS-Deep data. The inverted triangle is the major merger fraction at z = 0.09 from MGC. The white rectangle is the local (z = 0.09) minor merger fraction derived from the total and the major merger ones, while the gray area identifies the most probable minor merger fraction values in the range 0 < z < 1 (see text for details). The solid line is the best fit of a power-law function with a fixed index, f_mm ∝ (1 + z)^-0.4, to the minor merger fraction data. The dashed line is the least-squares best fit of a power-law function to the major merger fraction data. The dotted line is the major + minor merger fraction if it is assumed constant. (A colour version of this plot is available in electronic form.)