  Background. Software quality assurance is essential during software
development and maintenance. Static Analysis Tools (SAT) are widely used for
assessing code quality. Architectural smells are becoming more daunting to
address and evaluate among quality issues.
  Objective. We aim to understand the relationships between static analysis
warnings (SAW) and architectural smells (AS) to guide developers/maintainers in
focusing their efforts on SAWs more prone to co-occurring with AS.
  Method. We performed an empirical study on 103 Java projects totaling 72
million LOC belonging to projects from a vast set of domains, and 785 SAW
detected by four SAT, Checkstyle, Findbugs, PMD, SonarQube, and 4 architectural
smells detected by ARCAN tool. We analyzed how SAWs influence AS presence.
Finally, we proposed an AS remediation effort prioritization based on SAW
severity and SAW proneness to specific ASs.
  Results. Our study reveals a moderate correlation between SAWs and ASs.
Different combinations of SATs and SAWs significantly affect AS occurrence,
with certain SAWs more likely to co-occur with specific ASs. Conversely, 33.79%
of SAWs act as "healthy carriers", not associated with any ASs.
  Conclusion. Practitioners can ignore about a third of SAWs and focus on those
most likely to be associated with ASs. Prioritizing AS remediation based on SAW
severity or SAW proneness to specific ASs results in effective rankings like
those based on AS severity.
