2000/09/06 by Chris Mihos, Mihos, Chris
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0009099
4 pages, 1 Postscript figure, uses newpasp.sty. To apear in the conference proceedings of "Gas and Galaxy Evolution"
arxiv created 2000/09/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
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.