Tidal Tales of Minor Mergers: Star Formation in Minor Merger Tidal Tails

While major mergers and their tidal debris are well studied, they are less common than minor mergers and likely played a role in forming most large galaxies, including the Milky Way. Tidal debris regions have large amounts of neutral gas but a lower gas density and may have higher turbulence.Star formation tracers such as young star cluster populations and Halpha, CO, and CII emission were studied to determine the different factors that may influence star formation in tidal debris. These tracers were compared to the reservoirs of gas available for star formation to estimate the star formation efficiency (SFE). The SFR of tidal debris can reach up to 50% of the total star formation in the system. The SFE of tidal tails in minor mergers can range over orders of magnitude on both local and global scales. From the tidal debris environments in this study, this variance appears to stem from the formation conditions of the debris. A large survey with TMT as well as the continuing programs of ALMA and the EVLA can provide a larger sample of environments to study the threshold for star formation and can inform star formation models, particularly at low densities.