ACTIVITY IN COLLIDING GALAXIES

A substantial body of evidence now exists that indicates that there is a connection between the observed activity in galaxies and the appare nt involvement of these active galaxies in tidal interactions with oth er galaxies. To investigate this phenomenon, we are studying the morph ologies and environments of various interacting galaxies showing evide nce of activity. In particular, we present here some preliminary resul ts from our investigations of the claimed interaction-activity connect ion for a sample of colliding radio galaxies endowed with a bent radio jet morphology. We find that the timing of the jet activity is consis tent with a tidal-triggering hypothesis. Our results therefore lend fu rther support to the idea that the galactic activity observed in some ''interactive'' galaxies is in fact collision-induced.