# On the Influence of the Environment in the Star Formation Rates of a Sample of Galaxies in Nearby Compact Groups

## 1 Introduction

There has been considerable discussion in the literature about the possibility that compact groups are chance alignments within looser groups or clusters, rather than genuinely dense aggregates of galaxies (Mamon 1995, Ostriker et al. 1995). The typical median value of the velocity dispersions of the well known Hickson Compact Groups is about 200 km sec<sup>-1</sup> (Hickson 1982), so that given that this value is of the order of the typical rotational velocity of the disks of the spirals, strong effects of the interactions would be expected between their members. In fact, Mendes de Oliveira & Hickson (1994) reported morphological signs of interactions for a large fraction of galaxies within compact groups, what was interpreted in favor of the bound system hypothesis. However, Walke & Mamon (1989) interpreted this result suggesting that a large number of binaries combined with projected background galaxies would give the same ratio of interactions as the one found for the compact groups.

Observations devoted to disentangle the real nature of compact groups have been carried out by several authors at different wavelength ranges: Optical (Moles et al. 1994, Pildis et al. 1995), far infrared (Hickson et al. 1989, Sulentic & de Mello Rabaça 1993, Venugopal 1995, Allam et al. 1996, Verdes-Montenegro et al. 1998), X rays (Ebeling et al. 1994, Saracco & Ciliegi 1995, Ponman et al. 1996), radio (Williams & Rood 1987, Menon 1995, Huchtmeier 1997). Nevertheless, the problem still remains unclear.

The study of the Star Formation Rates (SFRs) of the galaxies in compact groups could also supply information concerning their real nature. It is known that interactions between disk galaxies can modify their SFRs under some circumstances of spin alignment, velocity differences and impact parameter (Mihos et al. 1991). In particular, if the interaction is so strong to morphologically disturb the disks, an enhancement in the SFR is expected. This theoretical result has been observationally confirmed for nearby pairs (Kennicutt et al. 1987, Laurikainen & Moles 1989) and for samples of peculiar galaxies (e.g. Larson & Tinsley 1978, Mazzarella et al. 1991). Moles et al. (1994), using broad band photometric data, performed a statistical study on the SFRs of a large sample of galaxies in compact groups obtaining a slight enhancement compared to the normal galaxies but with less star formation activity than paired galaxies. This result suggested that the star formation properties of compact groups of galaxies are not dominated by the effects of strong interactions.

However, broad band optical colors are only sensitive to the SFRs on time scales of the order of 10<sup>8</sup>yr. Better indicators of the evolution of the SFR on shorter timescales are the FIR luminosities (Telesco 1988, Mazzarella et al. 1991) and the luminosity of the hydrogen recombination lines (e.g. Kennicutt 1983). In this work, the SFRs of a sample of galaxies in compact groups from the “Catalog of Compact Groups of Galaxies” (Hickson 1982) were compared with those of a sample of field galaxies in order to study the influence of the compact group environment on the SFRs of galaxies. The star formation properties of the most interesting groups have already been studied in detail in previous papers (Iglesias-Páramo & Vílchez 1997a, 1997b, 1998). Also the complete sample of groups has been presented in a previous article (Vílchez & Iglesias-Páramo 1998a). In §2 we describe our sample of groups and all the information relevant to the acquisition and reduction of the data. The observational results of our work together with the implications on the nature of the compact groups are described in §3 and §4. Finally, §5 contains the conclusions of this work.

## 2 Data Reduction and Photometric Results

The sample of galaxies was previously described by Vílchez & Iglesias-Páramo (1998a), together with their H$`\alpha `$ images, and the details of to the acquisition and reduction of the data.

Table 1 shows the H$`\alpha `$ photometry of all the accordant<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1Those galaxies with radial velocity within 1000 $`kmsec^1`$ of the median velocity of the group galaxies of our sample. The data are corrected for Galactic extinction following Burstein & Heiles (1984) and using a standard extinction law (Rieke & Lebofsky 1985). Column (2) shows the Galactic extinction in the $`B`$ band. Column (3) shows the absolute $`B`$ magnitude of the galaxies from de Vaucouleurs et al. (1991). Column (4) shows the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity expressed in erg sec<sup>-1</sup>. Upper limits correspond to $`3\sigma `$ over the sky level. Given that the FWHM of the filters are about 50Å wide, we could not avoid the contamination due to the \[Nii\] lines, so hereafter we will refer to H$`\alpha +`$\[Nii\] as H$`\alpha `$. Column (5) shows the observational uncertainty of the logarithm of the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity, computed as the quadratic sum of the observational plus the Poissonian errors. However, as commented above, there are additional sources of uncertainty in the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity: The internal extinction, the presence of the \[Nii\] lines, the emission of the galactic nuclei and the uncertainty in the continuum level. Young et al. (1996) estimated the total uncertainty due to these factors at $``$20% of the real value. Column (6) shows the equivalent width of H$`\alpha `$ expressed in Å. The equivalent width of H$`\alpha `$ was computed following this formula

$$EW(\mathrm{H}\alpha )=\frac{C_\alpha }{C_{cont}}\times W_f,$$
(1)   
where $`C_\alpha `$ is the number of counts from the galaxy in the net H$`\alpha `$ frame, $`C_{cont}`$ is the number of counts of the galaxy in the scaled continuum frame and $`W_f`$ is the FWHM of the filter in Å. This gives a reasonable estimation of the total H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width, since we are including the whole galaxy.

Column (7) shows the present day SFR expressed in solar masses per year. This parameter only accounts for the stars heavier than $`10M_{}`$ and has been computed following Kennicutt (1983):

$$SFR(10M_{})=\frac{L(\mathrm{H}\alpha )}{7.02\times 10^{41}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{sec}^1}M_{}yr^1$$
(2)   
assuming an IMF of the form:

$$\psi (m)\{\begin{array}{cc}m^{1.4}\hfill & (0.1m1M_{})\hfill \\ m^{2.5}\hfill & (1m100M_{})\hfill \end{array}$$
(3)   
Column (8) expresses the confidence level of the measured values for the H$`\alpha `$ luminosities: A value of 0 indicates that the galaxy was well isolated. A value of 1 indicates that the galaxy may have been slightly contaminated by light from a nearby star or a nearby companion. A value of 2 means that the flux of the galaxy was strongly contaminated by a saturated star or that strong difficulties arose in the determination of the sky. All the data are corrected for Galactic extinction but not for internal extinction.

Two of the galaxies, HCG44C and HCG92C, are classified as Seyfert galaxies (Huchra & Burg 1992). The H$`\alpha `$ luminosity listed in Table 1 accounts for the contribution due to the whole galaxy. However, for the subsequent analysis, we reject the nuclear point source contribution to the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity of these galaxies because the ionizing source responsible for the nuclear H$`\alpha `$ photons may well be non-thermal. The total nuclear contributions of HCG44C and HCG92C amount to 68% and 78% of the global H$`\alpha `$ luminosity respectively. Also, HCG68c was found to show LINER-type emission (Giuricin et al. 1990) in the nucleus. The nuclear emission in this galaxy amounts to 13% of the total H$`\alpha `$ emission. Galaxies HCG16a and HCG16b have been reported to show a LINER-type spectrum. However, it was shown by Vílchez & Iglesias-Páramo (1998a), that HCG16a exhibits a ring of circumnuclear emission but it does not show a nuclear H$`\alpha `$ emission region. Thus, we argue that this galaxy could have been misclassified as a LINER due to the low resolution of the spectrum analyzed or to the fact that the H$`\alpha `$ line could be absorbed by the underlying population of the bulge. The nuclear emission region in HCG16b contributes more than 90% to the total emission of this galaxy. For the subsequent analysis of the SFRs we will neglect the non-thermal contributions to the H$`\alpha `$ luminosities of the galaxies HCG16b, 44c, 68c and 92c.

## 3 Observational Results

### 3.1 H$`\alpha `$ Equivalent Widths

One of the tools available to study the SFRs of the galaxies in our sample is the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width. It is well known that this parameter is related to the star formation history of a galaxy, i.e. to the ratio of the current to past SFR, and also to the high mass end of the IMF (e.g. Kennicutt et al. 1994 and references therein).

We have selected the sample of galaxies by Kennicutt & Kent (1983, hereafter KK83) to compare the distribution of the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths with the one for our sample. This sample of disk galaxies is the largest published with measured equivalent widths. For our purposes, galaxies belonging to the Virgo cluster have been removed from the KK83 sample. Also, we have removed the galaxies that were observed with an aperture smaller than the diameter of the galaxy. Figure On the Influence of the Environment in the Star Formation Rates of a Sample of Galaxies in Nearby Compact Groups shows the histograms of the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths for both samples. The KK83 distribution is narrower than the compact group one. This effect could be due to the fact that the morphological composition of both samples are not homogeneous. However the median values of the distributions are almost coincident: $`\mathrm{log}EW=1.41`$ and $`1.45`$ for the KK83 and the compact group samples respectively.

In Figure On the Influence of the Environment in the Star Formation Rates of a Sample of Galaxies in Nearby Compact Groups we have also plotted the distribution of the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths for the galaxies in our sample binned by Hubble type. The vertical bars indicate the ranges covered by the galaxies in the KK83 sample for each bin. The Y axis shows also the birthrate parameter – defined in Kennicutt et al. (1994) as a parameterization of the star formation history of a disk galaxy –. There are no significant differences between both samples, excepting the extreme H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width measured for the Im merging galaxy in HCG31.

### 3.2 Present Day SFRs

As has been shown in the previous section, no statistical differences in the star formation history between the compact groups sample and the KK83 sample were found from their H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths. In this section we are trying to shed light in the possible influence of the environment on the present day SFRs of the galaxies in compact groups as compared to a sample of field galaxies. For this purpose we have built an extended sample of disk galaxies from several sources in the literature: Young et al. (1996), KK83, Hunter & Gallagher (1986) and Miller & Hodge (1994). For galaxies with more than one estimation of the H$`\alpha `$ flux, the most recent was chosen.

The distances of the galaxies were derived from the Kraan-Korteweg Catalogue (1986), or assuming a pure Hubble flow with $`H_0=100kmsec^1Mpc^1`$ for those galaxies not included in this catalogue. The H$`\alpha `$ luminosities and absolute magnitudes were calculated using these distances. The data were corrected for Galactic extinction following Burstein & Heiles (1984). No further correction was applied to the H$`\alpha `$ fluxes so that we could compare them directly to our own data. However, as the amount of internal extinction is not expected to present large variations from a mean value for the two samples and taking into account that the main conclusions of our work are statistical, we claim that the effect of internal extinction will hardly affect the results of this paper.

We have discarded from the field sample those galaxies belonging to the Virgo Cluster and to any of the Abell clusters as well as paired galaxies, merged galaxies and galaxies presenting nearby satellites. Thus, our field sample is free of environmental effects. The fractional abundance of galaxies of each morphological type is very similar to the compact groups sample, so that any effect that depends on the composition of the samples is excluded. Table 2 contains the main observational properties of the galaxies of the field sample. Columns (1) to (5) contain selected properties of the galaxies.

Given that the compact group and the field samples cover a large range in magnitudes and masses, we have normalized the H$`\alpha `$ luminosities to the $`B`$ luminosity in order to compare their current SFRs. Figure On the Influence of the Environment in the Star Formation Rates of a Sample of Galaxies in Nearby Compact Groups shows $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }`$ against the absolute $`B`$ magnitude for the galaxies of our sample – open squares – and the field sample – asterisks –. As this figure shows, no galaxies fainter than $`M_B=14`$ are present in the compact group sample. This bias is mostly due to the selection criterion for compact groups which limits the magnitude difference between two galaxies in the group to 3 magnitudes. However, the high luminosity limits are similar for the two samples. Also, it can be seen that for magnitudes brighter than $`M_B=17`$, the scatter in the distribution of the compact group galaxies is larger than for the field galaxies.

Figure On the Influence of the Environment in the Star Formation Rates of a Sample of Galaxies in Nearby Compact Groups shows the corresponding histograms of $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ for both samples (the upper histogram shows the distribution for the compact group sample and the lower one shows the distribution for the field sample). The irregular galaxies of the two samples have been highlighted with grey bins. It can be seen that the irregular galaxies from the compact group sample extend over one order of magnitude whereas the irregulars from the field sample extend over almost two orders of magnitude in $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$. This effect is reflecting the selection criterion mentioned above for Hickson compact groups. Thus, no low surface brightness irregulars are present in the compact groups of our sample. Both distributions show a maximum around $`\mathrm{log}L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B3`$. The histogram of compact groups also shows a secondary maximum at around $`\mathrm{log}L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B4`$ which is due to the existence of spiral galaxies with a low level of H$`\alpha `$ emission. However, although this secondary maximum cannot be claimed with a great statistical significance because of the small number of data points, it is clear that this feature does not have a counterpart in the histogram of field galaxies. The highest values of $`\mathrm{log}L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ are also found in the compact group distribution. The median values of $`\mathrm{log}L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ are $`2.85`$ for the sample of galaxies in compact groups and $`2.92`$ for the field sample. These values are not significantly different given the overall errors in $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$. The significance level obtained was 0.57 after applying the Kolmogorov-Smirnoff test to both distributions.

A further criterium to compare the SFRs of different samples of galaxies is the SFR per unit surface area of the galaxies. Given that for disk galaxies most of the SFR is concentrated in the disk, this indicator should be a better indicator of the level of star formation, since for the earlier spirals the blue luminosity has a strong contribution from the bulge, where very little star formation activity normally occurs. Figure On the Influence of the Environment in the Star Formation Rates of a Sample of Galaxies in Nearby Compact Groups shows the histogram of the present day SFRs per unit area for the galaxies of the compact group sample (a) and for the field sample (b). The grey bins in the plot correspond to the irregulars in both samples. The areas of the galaxies were parameterized according to the product of the lengths of the major and minor axes following de Vaucouleurs et al. (1991). The maxima of the distributions are slightly displaced: $`\mathrm{log}SFR/Area=8.9M_{}yr^1pc^2`$ for the compact group sample and $`\mathrm{log}SFR/Area=8.3M_{}yr^1pc^2`$ for the field sample. Moreover, the distribution corresponding to the compact group galaxies is less symmetric and broader than that of the field galaxies and seems to be weighted towards low SFRs per unit area. The distribution of the irregular galaxies in the two samples are quite different: It covers a range of about 3 orders of magnitude for the field galaxies whereas it is restricted to the high SFRs per unit surface area for the compact group galaxies, again due to the selection criterion mentioned above. The median values of the distributions are $`\mathrm{log}SFR/Area=8.66M_{}yr^1pc^2`$ for the compact group sample and $`\mathrm{log}SFR/Area=8.42M_{}yr^1pc^2`$ for the field sample. The significance level obtained was 0.50 after applying the Kolmogorov-Smirnoff test. The present day SFR per unit surface area was found to be enhanced in samples of interacting galaxies (Bushouse 1987, Kennicutt et al. 1987, Laurikainen & Moles 1989). However, the same result does not hold for the galaxies in our compact group sample. Concerning the shape of the distributions, the sample of compact groups shows an excess of low H$`\alpha `$ luminosity spirals which does not have a counterpart in the distribution for the field galaxies.

The main result found in this section is that there is no global enhancement in the star formation histories of the galaxies in the compact groups sample neither in their present day SFRs, when compared to galaxies of the field sample. This suggests that although interactions among galaxies in compact groups are expected to occur, their characteristic signature should be different from a straight enhancement of the SFR of the galaxies involved.

### 3.3 Total H$`\alpha `$ Luminosity of the Compact Groups

In this section we analyze the total H$`\alpha `$ luminosity of the groups normalized to their $`B`$ luminosity. In the previous section we have found that the individual disk galaxies in our sample do not show a significant enhancement in the present day SFR with respect to the galaxies in our field sample. An enhancement in the normalized H$`\alpha `$ luminosity was found, however, for the early-type galaxies of the compact group sample (see Vílchez & Iglesias-Páramo 1998b) compared to the sample of field early-type galaxies. This enhancement was attributed to the accretion of gas by the early-type galaxies in the groups from the outer envelopes of gas-rich galaxies during close passages. In this section we will test whether there is any environmental effect related to the dynamical state of the groups which affects the total H$`\alpha `$ emission of a given group.

For this purpose, we built synthetic groups composed of galaxies taken from the field sample. We have added to our field sample the sample of field ellipticals and lenticulars listed in Vílchez & Iglesias-Páramo (1998b) in order to cover all the morphological types. For each real group of our sample a set of synthetic groups was constructed with the same number of galaxies and fractional abundance of morphological types as the real group, and restricted by the condition that the maximum difference in absolute magnitude of the members of the synthetic groups is three, following the selection criterion imposed by Hickson (1982). Using these criteria, for each real group of our sample we selected all the possible synthetic groups of galaxies from the field sample. Then, the ratio $`\mathrm{log}L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ was computed for all the groups. The final result is plotted in Figure On the Influence of the Environment in the Star Formation Rates of a Sample of Galaxies in Nearby Compact Groups. This Figure shows the ratio $`\mathrm{log}L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ for the groups of our sample represented by open squares. The median value of this ratio for the corresponding synthetic groups is indicated by open triangles. Vertical error bars correspond to one standard deviation in $`\mathrm{log}L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$.

As can be seen, 6 of the groups – HCG16, 31, 54, 92, 93 and 100 – show a $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ ratio higher than $`1\sigma `$ above the median values of the distribution of synthetic groups, 4 of the groups – HCG7, 30, 44 and 61 – show a $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ ratio lower than $`1\sigma `$ below the median values and 6 of the groups – HCG2, 23, 37, 68, 79 and 95 – lie within $`1\sigma `$ of the median values of the synthetic groups. Of the 6 groups that lie more than $`1\sigma `$ above the median values of the synthetic groups, 5 of them – HCG16, 31, 54, 92 and 100 – lie even above the highest value reached by any of the corresponding synthetic groups. These 5 groups are composed by nearly 100% of spirals or irregulars. On the contrary, all those groups that lie lower than $`1\sigma `$ below the median values contain a lower fraction of late-type galaxies.

Four of the groups of our sample have a first-ranked<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2Brightest galaxy in the group elliptical – HCG37, 79, 93 and 95 – whereas two of them have a first-ranked S0 – HCG61 and 68 –. These groups do not show any preference for a value of $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ above or below the median value of the synthetic groups. Thus, although the ellipticals in the groups show a higher value of $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ than the field ellipticals, the presence of a bright elliptical in the group is not the key factor controlling the total $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ of the group.

There are 4 groups in the compact group sample that contain interacting pairs showing clear tidal tails: HCG16, 31, 92 and 95. Three of these groups show $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ $`1\sigma `$ above the median value of the synthetic groups. Thus it seems that when interactions are so strong to disrupt the disks of the galaxies in such a way that tidal features are developed, then a clear enhancement in the present day SFR of at least one of the galaxies involved is observed.

It can be expected that the H$`\alpha `$ emission of the groups may be related to the gaseous content of the group. Several authors have studied the Hi content of the HCGs and have generated very recently an almost complete database of the catalogue. The Hi masses for all the groups of our sample are available in the literature (see Williams & Rood 1987, Huchtmeier 1997). With these published data we plotted the ratio $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ against $`M`$(Hi)/$`L_B`$ for the groups of our sample in Figure On the Influence of the Environment in the Star Formation Rates of a Sample of Galaxies in Nearby Compact Groups, and we found a slight correlation in the expected sense that the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity increases with the Hi content (both relative to the total $`B`$ luminosity). However, the data show a large scatter for the groups with a higher content of Hi. This means that Hi is necessary for a high SFR, but some groups with a high level of Hi show a low value of $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ and thus a low SFR.

The molecular gas content of disk galaxies is known to be a better indicator of the present day star formation activity of galaxies. Perea et al. (1997) carried out a program devoted to study the relationship between the quantity of molecular gas and the $`B`$ luminosity for isolated galaxies and they found a nonlinear dependence between these two quantities for spiral galaxies spanning 4 orders of magnitude. Furthermore, Verdes-Montenegro et al. (1998) found that the CO and FIR properties of a distance limited complete sample of Hickson compact group galaxies were surprisingly similar to isolated spirals. This result agrees well with our finding that the present day SFRs of the compact group galaxies are on average indistinguishable from the one corresponding to the field galaxies.

As compact groups are supposed to be dynamical entities, and given that some interactions are known to enhance the SFRs of the disk galaxies, it could be thought that some connection between the dynamical properties of the groups and the SFRs of the member galaxies is expected. In order to explore any possible relationship between the global SFR of the groups and their dynamical state, we have plotted the ratio $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ against four different dynamical parameters of the groups. Figure On the Influence of the Environment in the Star Formation Rates of a Sample of Galaxies in Nearby Compact Groups shows the ratio $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ plotted against (a) the velocity dispersion, (b) the dimensionless crossing time, (c) the median projected separation and (d) the mass-to-light ratio. No correlation with the $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ luminosities was found in any of the four plots.

As plot (a) shows, the range in velocity dispersion covered by the groups in our sample is around 200 km sec<sup>-1</sup>, that is of the order of the typical values for the rotation velocity of disk galaxies. This fact implies that the damage to be produced by the interactions should be maximal under these conditions. However, the lack of correlation with the normalized H$`\alpha `$ luminosity means that some other parameter governing the interaction plays a role in the regulation of the star formation of galaxies. The range of crossing times covered by the groups of our sample is very extended, as plot (b) shows, and again no correlation was found with the normalized H$`\alpha `$ luminosity. The number of interactions is related to the crossing time in the sense that the larger the crossing time, the less interactions occur. Thus, this result means that the number of interactions that a galaxy is susceptible to experience is not an important factor that controls the SFRs of the galaxies in the groups. The median projected separation of the groups are shown in plot (c). As this plot shows, there is no correlation between this parameter and the normalized H$`\alpha `$ luminosity. This result suggests that the impact parameter alone does not regulate the star formation induced by interactions. Finally, plot (d) shows the mass to luminosity ratio of the groups against the normalized H$`\alpha `$ luminosity. The absence of correlation between these two quantities means that the total amount of dark matter is not a key parameter controlling the SFRs of the galaxies in the group. The overall result of this analysis is that the dynamical parameters considered above have no influence on the SFR of the system as a whole.

Thus, in this section we have seen that the total normalized H$`\alpha `$ luminosities of the compact groups are on average very similar to the computed for the sample of synthetic groups of field galaxies. Only when interactions are strong so as to develop tidal tails, the level of H$`\alpha `$ is enhanced in the compact groups with respect to the synthetic ones.

## 4 Discussion

In the previous sections, we have shown that the present day SFRs of the disk galaxies of our sample of compact groups are not enhanced on average with respect to the values measured for the field sample. But, the distribution of normalized H$`\alpha `$ luminosities is broadened compared to the corresponding to the field sample, thus meaning that the group environment is modifying the star formation properties of the galaxies in the groups. In particular, when tidal features are present, the galaxies in the groups tend to present the highest values of their present day SFR.

As it was demonstrated by the study by Mendes de Oliveira and Hickson (1994), and it would be easily inferred from the values of the relevant dynamical parameters of the groups listed in the previous section, it is clear that galaxy interactions are ubiquitous in most of the HCGs. Thus, from the environmental point of view, interactions are expected to be one of the most efficient agents affecting star formation in group galaxies. However, what appears not straightforward is the prediction of the actual effect of interactions on the present day SFR. Published simulations on induced star formation and interactions (Olson & Kwan 1990, Mihos et al. 1991) predict that only in some cases their SFR is expected to be enhanced during this process, whereas the same simulations predict that the SFR could even be depleted for given combinations of parameters describing the interaction. The results found in this work agree with these predictions, in the sense that we can explain the broadening of the normalized H$`\alpha `$ luminosity as the result of the modification of the SFR due to interactions. The galaxies very luminous in H$`\alpha `$ present in some of our groups would correspond to the privileged cases of interaction in which the SFR is enhanced.

Our result also agrees with the previous finding by Hashimoto et al. (1998) who found that the highest levels of star formation are more prevalent in the intermediate environment of poor clusters than in either the field or rich clusters. Tidal features produced during interactions are difficult to occur in rich clusters because their velocity dispersions are around 750 km/sec<sup>-1</sup> (Zabludoff et al. 1990), that is, several times higher than for compact groups, thus preventing disrupting interactions between galaxies. For the field galaxies, interactions are not likely to happen because of the lack of neighbor galaxies.

Further information can be extracted combining the Hi content of the spirals and the H$`\alpha `$ luminosities of the early-type galaxies in our sample of compact groups. Williams & Rood (1987) and Huchtmeier (1997) reported that most of the spirals in the Hickson compact groups are Hi deficient. This result can be explained assuming that most interactions between galaxies just produce harassment in their external halos. The depletion of the gaseous halos would result in no changes or an inhibition of the SFR of the galaxies. The gas lost by the disk galaxies could be accreted by the more massive ellipticals and lenticulars, where it could result in some new extra star formation after compression during the accretion process. This would explain the enhancement in the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity found for the early-type galaxies of this sample (Vílchez & Iglesias-Páramo, 1998b). However, in order to set this hypothesis, more observational data of early-type galaxies are required.

Concerning the dynamical nature of the compact groups of galaxies, the order of magnitude of their lifetimes still remains unclear: Barnes (1989) showed that if we assume that the dark matter is attached to the individual galaxies, the lifetimes of compact groups of galaxies should be no longer than few crossing times. The final fate of the groups would be a massive elliptical galaxy originated by merging of the initial galaxies. But, if this were the case, we should see more merger remnants with strongly enhanced SFRs instead of a majority of normal groups showing present day SFRs similar to the field galaxies, as it is actually observed. This problem can be sorted out assuming that the bulk of dark matter is mostly arranged in a central halo and shared by all the galaxies in the group. The recent simulations by Gómez-Flechoso (1997) indicate that if the galaxies are immersed in a dark matter envelope, the lifetime of the group could be as large as $`10^{10}`$yr without substantial changes in the structure of the galaxies except in their outer parts. She made numerical simulations of a compact group of four galaxies, assuming that dark matter was mostly placed in a common halo and assuming that the galaxies are aggregates of particles with velocity dispersions between 100 and 200 km sec<sup>-1</sup>. She found that the sizes of the galaxies are reduced by less than 30% after $`10^{10}`$yr and that the aspect of the groups remained almost similar to the initial one. The assumption that galaxies are composed systems, rather than point particles, coupled with a new mathematical formulation of the dynamical friction can enlarge the timescales as long as double of the classical estimations.

Finally, assuming that the lifetimes of compact groups are so large, we still can address the question about the morphological transformation of spirals into spheroidals in clusters of galaxies, proposed by Moore et al. (1998). These authors suggest that after approximately 5 Gyr, the spirals in clusters transform into spheroidal systems due to encounters with bright galaxies and the cluster’s tidal field. The transformation is mostly due to the cumulative effect of encounters at speeds of several thousands of km sec<sup>-1</sup>. However, the typical velocity dispersions in compact groups, of the order of 200 km sec<sup>-1</sup>, make the probability of a high velocity encounters very low, and thus there is little room for galaxy transformation via harassment. In fact, although it is known that the fraction of spirals in compact groups is lower than in the field (Hickson 1982), till the date no faint spheroidals have been reported in compact groups.

## 5 Conclusions

In this paper we have studied the effects of the environment on the SFRs of a sample of disk galaxies in compact groups, using H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths and luminosities to derive their star formation histories and present day SFRs respectively. A direct comparison with a sample of field galaxies has yielded the following results:

The present day SFRs of the galaxies in compact groups are slightly modified by the environment, but there is not an overall enhancement with respect to the field galaxies. This finding agrees with previous results from theoretical simulations that only some kind of interactions are able to enhance the SFR of the galaxies involved, whereas the rest of them keep it unchanged or even tend to inhibit it.

The total H$`\alpha `$ luminosity of the groups relative to their $`B`$ luminosity is not significantly enhanced compared to the values of a sample of synthetic groups of field galaxies. In fact, most of the groups show normalized H$`\alpha `$ luminosities below or equal to the ones shown by their corresponding synthetic groups. The $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ ratio is slightly correlated with the $`M`$(Hi)/$`L_B`$ ratio in the sense that the groups that show a high level of $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ also have a high content of Hi. However, some of the groups show a high content of Hi but quite a low level of $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$. No clear correlations were found between the total $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/L_B`$ ratio of the groups and several relevant dynamical parameters, a fact that suggests that the exact dynamical state of the groups does not control the SFRs of the member galaxies.

Finally, our results appear compatible with a scenario for compact groups of galaxies in which galaxies are embedded in a dark matter halo that enlarges the lifetime of the group, preventing the galaxies for rapid merging and collapse, what would result in significantly enhanced SFRs for the observed compact groups.

We want to acknowledge to John Beckman for careful reading of the last version of this document and for interesting comments and suggestions. Thanks must also be given to Mariángeles Gómez-Flechoso for interesting comments about dynamical friction. The INT and the JKT are operated on the island of La Palma by the RGO in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. The 2.2m Telescope is operated by the MPIA in the Spanish Observatorio de Calar Alto. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.