Making Elliptical Galaxies

What is left behind when the merger is complete?
Can mergers make elliptical galaxies?

We can examine the model remnants to ask:

• Do the remnants look like ellipticals?
• What signatures are left behind to identify merger-spawned ellipticals?

Examine:

• Morphology
• Density profiles
• Gas content
• Kinematics

Bottom line:

• Mergers can make some elliptical galaxies.
• The fraction of all ellipticals made this way is uncertain.
• Model signatures can be used to constrain this fraction.

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