Do galaxy mergers form elliptical galaxies? A comparison of kinematic and photometric properties

We present near-IR K-band imaging and spectroscopy of a sample of galaxy mergers, which we use to derive light profile indices, absolute magnitudes and central velocity dispersions. It is found that the light distributions of mergers more nearly resemble those of ellipticals than of bulges, but that the mergers lie well away from the Fundamental Plane defined by the ellipticals. This is interpreted as being due to enhancement of the K-band surface brightness of the mergers by a significant population of supergiant stars, and independent evidence for such a population is inferred from measurements of the depth of the 2.3 micron CO absorption feature