Gas content, star-formation, and global HI asymmetry

Observations have revealed that disturbances in the cold neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) in galaxies are commonplace, even in gas-rich, star-forming galaxies that are free from strong environmental effects. I will present an analysis of these disturbances, though the asymmetry of integrated HI spectra, to determine whether they are associated with a change in the gas or star-formation content of galaxies. I find that, in this regime, there is no evidence for any change in the HI content of galaxies with asymmetric HI spectra. However, there is evidence for a small increase in their star formation-rate, driven by the galaxies with the strongest disturbances in their HI reservoirs.