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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2017
The galaxy-galaxy interaction has been proposed as a possible triggering mechanism of the star formation bursts in some galaxies (e.g. Larson and Tinsley 1978). To investigate the nature of star formation bursts triggered by interaction we have numerically simulated close encounters between disk galaxies, taking the star formation process into account (see Noguchi and Ishibashi 1986 for details). We used the cloud-particle model, in which gas clouds move as test particles in the gravitational field of the galaxies. When two clouds collide with each other, an OB-star is formed. The cloud system loses its kinetic energy by inelastic cloud-cloud collisions. The supernova explosion which follows the formation of an OB-star provides kinetic energy to the nearby clouds.