A NEAR-INFRARED IMAGING SURVEY OF INTERACTING GALAXIES - THE DISK-DISK MERGER CANDIDATES SUBSET

We present and discuss near-infrared imaging obtained for systems believed to be advanced disk-disk mergers. These systems were chosen from a sample of approximately 170 objects from the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies which have been imaged in the JHK bands as part of an investigation into the stellar component of interacting galaxies. Of the eight remnants which show optical signs of a disk-disk merger, the near-infrared surface brightness profiles are well-fitted by an r1/4 law over all measured radii in four systems, and out to radii of approximately 3 kpc in three systems. These K band profiles indicate that most of the remnants in the sample either have finished or are in the process of relaxing into a mass distribution like that of normal elliptical galaxies.