  (abridged) Measures of the HI properties of a galaxy are among the most
sensitive interaction diagnostic at our disposal. We report here on a study of
HI profile asymmetries (e.g., lopsidedness) in a sample of some of the most
isolated galaxies in the local Universe. This presents us with an excellent
opportunity to quantify the range of intrinsic HI asymmetries and provides us
with a zero-point calibration for evaluating these measurements in less
isolated samples. We characterize the HI profile asymmetries and search for
correlations between HI asymmetry and their environments, as well as their
optical and far infrared (FIR) properties. We use high signal-to-noise global
HI profiles for galaxies in the AMIGA project (http://amiga.iaa.csic.es). We
restrict our study to N=166 galaxies with accurate measures of the HI shape
properties. We quantify asymmetries using a flux ratio parameter. The asymmetry
parameter distribution of our isolated sample is well described by a Gaussian
model. The width of the distribution is sigma=0.13, and could be even smaller
(sigma=0.11) if instrumental errors are reduced. Only 2% of our carefully
vetted isolated galaxies sample show an asymmetry in excess of 3sigma. By using
this sample we minimize environmental effects as confirmed by the lack of
correlation between HI asymmetry and tidal force (one-on-one interactions) and
neighbor galaxy number density. On the other hand, field galaxy samples show
wider distributions and deviate from a Gaussian curve. As a result we find
higher asymmetry rates (~10-20%) in such samples. We find evidence that the
spiral arm strength is inversely correlated with the HI asymmetry. We also find
an excess of FIR luminous galaxies with larger HI asymmetries that may be
spirals associated with hidden accretion events. Our sample presents the
smallest fraction of asymmetric HI profiles compared with any other yet
studied.
