Bibcode
                                    
                            DOI
                                    
                            Balcells, Marc; González, Antonio César
    Bibliographical reference
                                    The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 505, Issue 2, pp. L109-L112.
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                        10
            
                        1998
            
  Journal
                                    
                            Citations
                                    33
                            Refereed citations
                                    29
                            Description
                                    We show that kinematically peculiar cores may be generated in stellar
spiral-spiral mergers. Kinematic segregation appears as the central
bulges transport orbital angular momentum inward to the center of the
remnant, while the outer parts keep the spin signature of the precursor
disks. The peculiar core is composed mostly of bulge material, and its
size best matches that of observed peculiar cores for mergers with
unequal galaxy masses (~2:1). Population decoupling is predicted by the
rapid radial decrease of the bulge fraction in the remnant. In this
scenario, a starburst may pump up the remnant metallicity, but otherwise
the high metallicity of the kinematically decoupled core is built on the
high metal content of the inner bulges rather than on a high
self-enrichment of a population built from scratch out of the
precursors' gas. Mergers with galaxy mass ratios 3:1 and above generate
disk galaxies with counterrotating bulges.