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SÉMINAIRE DU LERMA
OBSERVATOIRE DE PARIS
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Vendredi 17 Octobre 2003, a 14h


77 avenue Denfert Rochereau, Paris 14



Salle de l'Atelier, Observatoire de Paris





Luminosity Profiles and Kinematics of Advanced Mergers of Galaxies



Chanda J. Jog

Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.



Résumé : It is commonly accepted that a merger of two spiral galaxies results in a remnant with an elliptical galaxy-like luminosity profile. Surprisingly, our recent analysis of the 2MASS archival data for twenty-seven advanced mergers of galaxies (Chitre & Jog 2002, A & A, 388, 407) has shown that half of these have luminosity profiles decreasing exponentially with radius, as in a spiral galaxy. The standard theoretical N-body models in the literature cannot account for these systems. In order to better understand the mergers with spiral-like profiles, we next studied the kinematical data for two of these, Arp 224 and Arp 214, available from the HYPERCAT database (Jog & Chitre 2002, A & A Letters, 393, L89). We find that these are mainly pressure-supported as in an elliptical galaxy. The origin of this new class of merger remnants with mixed properties is an open question, and has important implications for the dynamics of mergers, and the evolution of galaxies.