The role of environment in triggering starburst galaxies: A sample of isolated galaxies

The project AMIGA (Analysis of the interstellar Medium of Isolated GAlaxies) will provide a statistically significant sample of the most isolated galaxies in the northern sky. Such a control sample is necessary to assess the role of the environment in galaxy properties and evolution. The sample is based on the Catalogue of Isolated Galaxies (CIG, Karachentseva, 1973) and the database will include blue and near-infrared luminosities, far-infrared (FIR) emission, atomic gas (HI) emission, radio continuum, and, for a redshift limited subsample of about 200 galaxies, CO and H$\alpha$ emission. The data will be released and periodically updated at http://www.iaa.csic.es/AMIGA.html. Here, we present the project and its status, as well as a preliminary analysis of the relation between star formation activity and the environment. We found a trend that the galaxies with asymmetric HI spectrum also tend to show an enhanced star formation, traced by a high value of $L_{FIR}/M(HI)$, indicating that a perturbed gas kinematics and enhanced SF are related.