We use eagle to quantify the effect galaxy mergers have on the stellar specific angular momentum of galaxies , j _ { stars } .
We split mergers into : dry ( gas-poor ) /wet ( gas-rich ) , major/minor , and different spin alignments and orbital parameters .
Wet ( dry ) mergers have an average neutral gas-to-stellar mass ratio of 1.1 ( 0.02 ) , while major ( minor ) mergers are those with stellar mass ratios \geq 0.3 ( 0.1 - 0.3 ) .
We correlate the positions of galaxies in the j _ { stars } -stellar mass plane at z = 0 with their merger history , and find that galaxies of low spins suffered dry mergers , while galaxies of normal/high spins suffered predominantly wet mergers , if any .
The radial j _ { stars } profiles of galaxies that went through dry mergers are deficient by \approx 0.3 dex at r \lesssim 10 r _ { 50 } ( with r _ { 50 } being the half-stellar mass radius ) , compared to galaxies that went through wet mergers .
Studying the merger remnants reveals that dry mergers reduce j _ { stars } by \approx 30 % , while wet mergers increase it by \approx 10 % , on average .
The latter is connected to the build-up of the bulge by newly formed stars of high rotational speed .
Moving from minor to major mergers accentuates these effects .
When the spin vectors of the galaxies prior to the dry merger are misaligned , j _ { stars } decreases to a greater magnitude , while in wet mergers co-rotation and high orbital angular momentum efficiently spun-up galaxies .
We predict what would be the observational signatures in the j _ { stars } profiles driven by dry mergers : ( i ) shallow radial profiles and ( ii ) profiles that rise beyond \approx 10 r _ { 50 } , both of which are significantly different from spiral galaxies .