Star Formation in Splash Bridges
  Splash bridges are created from the direct collision of two gas-rich disk
galaxies. These direct collisions can eject gas masses on the order of \SI{e10}
Msun stripped from the stellar disks of each galaxy. The Taffy Galaxy system
(UGC 1294/5) is a prototypical example of a splash bridge system. CO
observations of the Taffy revealed that its splash bridge contains a mass of
H_2 equal to that of the Milky Way's H_2 mass. However, the little visible star
formation occurring within the bridge highlights the need for models of direct
gas-rich disk collisions. The Arp 194 system displays what may be another
splash bridge resulting from the collision between two disk galaxies. The
region between the two stellar disks contains bright clumps of active star
formation. We aim to better understand the conditions for star formation in
splash bridges by employing a Jeans criterion to determine where gravitational
instabilities occur in the shocked and cooling gas of gas-rich disk collisions.
The splash bridge results are obtained from our previous work using a sticky
particle code and post-processed. We find that the inclination between the gas
disks and the collision velocity with which the gas collides strongly affects
the fraction of gas that will become gravitationally unstable. Low inclinations
between gas disks produce starbursts whereas high inclinations result in
steady-rate star formation. The offset of the gas disks at impact will
determine how many gas elements directly collide but does not strongly affect
the resulting star formation.
