Starbursts are preferentially interacting: confirmation from the nearest galaxies

TL;DR

This study confirms that starburst galaxies are more likely to be interacting than non-starburst galaxies, based on a comprehensive analysis of nearly 1500 nearby galaxies, emphasizing the robustness of the interaction-starburst link.

Contribution

It provides a robust confirmation that galaxy interactions increase the likelihood of starburst activity, using a large, nearby galaxy sample and analyzing the impact of starburst definitions.

Findings

Starburst galaxies are about twice as likely to be interacting.

Most starburst galaxies show no signs of current interaction.

Results are consistent across different starburst definitions.

Abstract

We complement a recent ApJ Letter by Luo et al. by comparing the fraction of starburst galaxies which are interacting with the overall fraction of interacting galaxies in the nearby galaxy population (within 40 Mpc). We confirm that in starburst galaxies the fraction of interacting galaxies is enhanced, by a factor of around 2, but crucially we do so by studying a sample of almost 1500 of the nearest galaxies, including many dwarfs and irregulars. We discuss how adjusting the starburst definition influences the final result and conclude that our result is stable. We find significantly lower fractions of interacting galaxies than Luo et al. did from their larger but more distant sample of galaxies, and argue that the difference is most likely due to various biases in the sample selection, with a representative sample of the nearest galaxies, such as the one used here, being the best possible representation of a general picture. Our overall conclusion is that interactions can and do increase the number of starburst galaxies, and that this result is extremely robust. By far most starburst galaxies, however, show no evidence of a present interaction.