  We investigate the nature of stellar populations of major galaxy mergers
between late-type spirals considerably abundant in interstellar medium by
performing numerical simulations designed to solve both the dynamical and
chemical evolution in a self-consistent manner. We particularly consider that
the star formation history of galaxy mergers is a crucial determinant for the
nature of stellar populations of merger remnants, and therefore investigate how
the difference in star formation history between galaxy mergers affects the
chemical evolution of galaxy mergers. We found that the rapidity of star
formation, which is defined as the ratio of the dynamical time-scale to the
time-scale of gas consumption by star formation, is the most important
determinant for a number of fundamental characteristics of stellar populations
of merger remnants. We mainly demonstrate that even the chemical evolution of
elliptical galaxies can be strongly affected by the details of dynamical
evolution of galaxy merging. Based upon the present numerical results, we adopt
a specific assumption of the luminosity dependence of the rapidity of star
formation and thereby discuss how successfully the present merger model can
reproduce a number of fundamental chemical, photometric, and spectroscopic
characteristics of elliptical galaxies.
