We present a statistical study of the presence of galaxy warps in the Hubble deep fields. Among a complete sample of 45 edge-on galaxies above a diameter of 1″3, we find 5 galaxies to be certainly warped and 6 galaxies as good candidates. In addition, 4 galaxies reveal a characteristic U-warp. Compared to statistical studies of local warps, and taking into account the strong bias against observing the outer parts of galaxies at high redshift, these numbers point towards a very high frequency of warps at z ∼ 1: almost all galaxy discs might be warped. Furthermore, the amplitude of warps are stronger than for local warps. This is easily interpreted in terms of higher galaxy interactions and matter accretion in the past. This result supports these two mechanisms as the best candidates for the origin of early warps. The mean observed axis ratio of our sample of edge-on galaxies is significantly larger in the high-z sample than is found for samples of local spiral galaxies. This might be due to disk thickening due to more frequent galaxy interactions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)513-521
Number of pages9
JournalASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
Volume382
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2002

    Research areas

  • Galaxies: evolution, Galaxies: formation, General; interactions; peculiar; photometry

    Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

ID: 32201257