Luminosity Profiles of Merger Remnants

Using published luminosity and molecular gas profiles of the late-stagemergers NGC 3921, NGC 7252 and Arp 220, we examine the expected luminosityprofiles of the evolved merger remnants, especially in light of the massive COcomplexes that are observed in their nuclei. For NGC 3921 and NGC 7252 wepredict that the resulting luminosity profiles will be characterized by anr^{1/4} law. In view of previous optical work on these systems, it seems likelythat they will evolve into normal ellipticals as regards their opticalproperties. Due to a much higher central molecular column density, Arp 220might not evolve such a ``seamless'' light profile. We conclude thatultraluminous infrared mergers such as Arp 220 either evolve into ellipticalswith anomalous luminosity profiles, or do not produce many low-mass stars outof their molecular gas complexes.