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Tidally induced star formation in Abell 1367
Our principal aim is to compare global star formation rates betweencluster galaxies and field galaxies in order to clarify environmentalinfluence on star formation. We use an objective prism technique tosurvey over 200 Zwicky catalogue (CGCG) galaxies within ~2 deg.5 ofAbell 1367 for Hα emission. After a brief discussion of the surveycharacteristics, we consider first the dependence of Hα detection onHubble type, galaxy disturbance and the presence of a bar. As expected,we rarely detect early-type galaxies and consequently restrict furtherdiscussion to spirals (type S0/a and later), of which we detect ~35percent in Hα. We find that an extremely valuable distinction to makeis between galaxies with diffuse Hα and galaxies with compactHα. There is a very significant tendency for galaxies with compactHα emission to be disturbed, and there may be a weak tendency forthem to be barred. Neither of these tendencies is found for galaxieswith diffuse Hα emission. We infer that compact emission resultsfrom tidally induced star formation, while diffuse emission results frommore normal disc star formation. After considering field contamination,we adopt as a `predominantly cluster' sample the spiral populationinside 0.5 r_A; a `predominantly field' sample outside 0.5 r_A; and a`pure field' sample outside 1.5 r_A. We consistently find a much largerfraction of spirals detected with compact Hα in the cluster samplecompared to the field samples (e.g. 38 versus 0per cent detected incluster and `pure field' samples, chi^2 significance 3.6sigma). Thisincreased fraction detected in the cluster is found for early-, mid- andlate-type spirals separately. No such cluster/field differences arefound for galaxies with diffuse Hα emission. We conclude that tidalperturbations are more common in the cluster than in the field, leadingto a higher incidence of compact tidally triggered star formation. Bycombining information on galaxy disturbance, galaxy companions, and thelocation of galaxies within the cluster, we have tried to identify theorigin of the tidal perturbations. We find strong evidence thatnear-neighbour interaction plays a significant role in triggering starformation. However, we also find candidate objects near the cluster corewhich may be perturbed by the overall cluster tidal field, and candidateobjects which may be influenced by a higher speed `harassment'interaction between galaxies.
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