Do mergers make (normal) ellipticals?

Abstract

Under the merger hypothesis, elliptical galaxies are built through mergers of gas-rich spirals. However, the relative paucity of HI in most normal ellipticals demands significant processing of atomic gas into other forms if this process is to be viable. Here I present a few qualitative remarks on how the properties of merger-spawned ellipticals might depend on the (evolving) gas content of the progenitor disks, then turn to a more quantitative study of the constraints provided by the nuclear properties of ellipticals and merger remnants.