STARBURSTS ARE PREFERENTIALLY INTERACTING: CONFIRMATION FROM THE NEAREST GALAXIES

We complement a recent Letter by Luo et al. by comparing the fraction of starburst galaxies that 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 two, 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 we 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.