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This paper examined a few different types of interacting galaxies and the implications the data has on cosmological theories. An analysis of the Holmberg Effect, Holmberg (1969)’s observation that companion galaxies tend to be near the poles of edge-on galaxies rather than in the planes, was done by reexamining the spirals viewed by Holmberg. Only using radial velocity confirmed companions to test for this effect showed that if anything, the opposite of the Holmberg effect is true. However, due to small number statistics, more edge-on spirals and their companions would have to be viewed in order to determine if this is an actual physical effect of anisotropic companion distribution around primary galaxies. It is important to discover if there is a preferred distribution, because it could point to the distribution of dark matter around the primary galaxies, and have interesting impacts on large-scale universal structure and cosmology theory.

For a sample of collisional ring galaxies, archival Hubble Space Telescope images were used to compare individual star clusters and kpc-sized clumps of star formation to each other in a variety of ways. For each galaxy, instrument, and filter, the magnitude of the brightest cluster in a clump was compared to the magnitude of the entire clump, and the fraction of the flux of the clusters in a clump over the flux of the entire clump was calculated and compared to star formation rates. In addition, a cluster luminosity function for each galaxy was derived. Comparing the brightest cluster in a clump to the magnitude of the entire clump and the flux ratio to the star formation rate did not show any significant patterns. However, the α found for the galaxies tended to be much flatter than what had been found in previous research. The α found seemed to be affected by the size of the bin used in the luminosity function. Using this information, α could be calculated for other incredibly luminous galaxies to see if the trend of flatter α continues.

This paper examined a few different types of interacting galaxies and the implications the data has on cosmological theories. An analysis of the Holmberg Effect, Holmberg (1969)’s observation that companion galaxies tend to be near the poles of edge-on galaxies rather than in the planes, was done by reexamining the spirals viewed by Holmberg. Only using radial velocity confirmed companions to test for this effect showed that if anything, the opposite of the Holmberg effect is true. However, due to small number statistics, more edge-on spirals and their companions would have to be viewed in order to determine if this is an actual physical effect of anisotropic companion distribution around primary galaxies. It is important to discover if there is a preferred distribution, because it could point to the distribution of dark matter around the primary galaxies, and have interesting impacts on large-scale universal structure and cosmology theory.