SO Colloquium: Studying star-formation in 'collisional' galaxies with MUSE

Galaxies in pre- and post-collisional stages are an excellent laboratory to study the evolution of galaxies, particularly the triggering and suppression of star formation on galactic scales before and after such interactions. In order to analyze the star formation triggered in these systems, we started a series of studies on 'collisional' galaxies with available integral field spectroscopy (IFS) observations. We use Very Large Telescope (VLT) Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) observations to study the young star cluster complexes and H ii regions in the Antennae, Cartwheel, and the double-ring collisional galaxy AM 0644-741. MUSE datacubes offer the opportunity to address several problems that are particular to these galaxies, such as studying the ionizing mechanisms and the chemical abundances in the star cluster complexes hosted in the H ii regions. IFS data also offers an opportunity to unveil the presence of populations of Wolf-Rayet stars and the sources of high ionization potential emission lines (e.g., He II 4686) in the nearby universe. We present our recent findings in this seminar.