Nuclear Brightness Profiles of Merger Remnants; Do Mergers Form Ellipticals?

Details Nuclear Brightness Profiles of Merger Remnants; Do Mergers Form Ellipticals? Nuclear Brightness Profiles of Merger Remnants; Do Mergers Form Ellipticals?

Dec 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997hst..prop.7268v&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #7268

Mathematics

Logic

Hst Proposal Id #7268 Galaxies

Scientific paper

Many elliptical galaxies might have formed from mergers of disk galaxies. Numerical simulations yield elliptical-like remnants and observed merger remnants have R^1/4 surface brightness profiles. However, while the global properties of merger remnants and ellipticals are similar, it is unknown whether this is true for their nuclear properties as well. Recent HST observations in optical bands have shown that ellipticals have central surface brightness cusps, and that the cusp slope correlates with luminosity. By contrast, studies of the old stellar population in merger remnants require observations at near-IR wavelengths, to minimize the strong dust obscuration and avoid the blue light from young stars. With NICMOS such observations are now possible at high spatial resolution for the first time. We will therefore do NICMOS imaging of a morphologically selected sample of merger remnants, including the prototype NGC 7252. A comparison of the inferred nuclear properties to those of ellipticals will provide a stringent test of the merger hypothesis. We will use the results of dissipationless and dissipational N-body simulations to interpret the observations. This will yield insight into the role of the physical processes of dynamical relaxation, dissipation and star formation in shaping merger remnants, and will aid in understanding the nuclear properties of ellipticals.

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