ENVIRONMENTAL DEPENDENCE OF WARPS IN SPIRAL GALAXIES

We determined the warp parameters of 192 warped galaxies which are selected from 340 edge-on galaxies using color images as well as r-band isophotal maps. We derive the local background density (${\Sigma}_n$) to examine the dependence of the warp amplitudes on the galaxy environment. We find a clear trend that strongly warped galaxies are likely to be found in high density regions where tidal interactions are supposed to be frequent. However, the correlation between ${\alpha}_{\omega}$ and ${\Sigma}_n$ is too weak for weakly warped galaxies (${\alpha}_{\omega}$ < $4^{\circ}$) and the cumulative distributions of weakly warped galaxies are not significantly different from those of galaxies with no detectable warps. This suggests that tidal interactions do not play a decisive role in the formation of weak warps.