Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Galaxy Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2009-02-10
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Galaxy Astrophysics
4 page, 2 figures, to be published in Galaxy Evolution: Emerging Insights and Future Challenges, ed. S. Jogee et al., Astron.
Scientific paper
Recently, controversy has erupted over whether gas-rich spiral-spiral mergers are capable of forming {\it m$^{*}$} ellipticals. Measurements of $\sigma$$_{\circ}$ from the 2.29$\micron$ CO band-head for local LIRG/ULIRGs, suggest they are not. IR-bright mergers are often cited as the best candidates for forming massive ellipticals, so the recent observations have raised doubts about both the Toomre Merger Hypothesis and the fundamental assumptions of $\Lambda$-CDM galaxy formation models. However, kinematics obtained with the Calcium II Triplet at 8500 {\AA} suggest mergers are forming {\it m} $\ge$ {\it m$^{*}$} ellipticals. In this work, we show that kinematics derived from the CO stellar absorption band-head leads to a significant underestimation of the masses of LIRGs/ULIRGs. This is primarily due to the presence of a young population affecting CO band-head measurements.
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