Merger cross-sections of colliding galaxies

A knowledge of merger cross-sections of colliding galaxies is very useful in the studies of interacting galaxies. Because of the inelastic nature of the galactic collisions, the authors distinguish between the parabolic velocity of escape and the more accurate velocity of escape obtained by taking the tidal effects into account. In this paper, the velocities of escape of colliding galaxies obtained under the impulsive approximation are compared to those obtained from N-body simulations. (Auth.)