Bars in Disk-dominated and Bulge-dominated Galaxies at z ~ 0: New Insights from ~3600 SDSS Galaxies

By F. Barazza, S. Jogee, I. Marinova. 2007

152 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present a study of large-scale bars in the local universe, based on a large sample of 3692 galaxies, with 18.5 ⩽ Mg < − 22.0 mag and redshift 0.01 ⩽ z < 0.03, drawn from the Sloan Digitized Sky Survey. Our sample includes many galaxies that are disk-dominated and of late Hubble types. Both color cuts and Sérsic cuts yield a similar sample of ~2000 disk galaxies. We characterize bars and disks by ellipse-fitting r-band images and applying quantitative criteria. After excluding highly inclined (60°) systems, we find the following results. (1) The optical r-band fraction (fopt − r) of barred galaxies, when averaged over the whole sample, is ~48%-52%. (2) When galaxies are separated according to half light radius (re), or normalized re/R24, which is a measure of the bulge-to-disk (B/D) ratio, a remarkable result is seen: fopt − r rises sharply, from ~40% in galaxies that have small re/R24 and visually appear to host prominent bulges, to ~70% for galaxies that have large re/R24 and appear disk-dominated. (3) For galaxies with bluer colors, fopt − r rises significantly (by ~30%). A weaker rise (by ~15%-20%) is seen for lower luminosities or lower masses. (4) While hierarchical ΛCDM models of galaxy evolution models fail to produce galaxies without classical bulges, our study finds that ~20% of disk galaxies appear to be ``quasi-bulgeless.” (5) We outline how the effect of a decreasing resolution and a rising obscuration of bars by gas and dust over z = 0.2–1.0 can cause a significant artificial loss of bars, and an artificial reduction in the optical bar fraction over z = 0.2–1.0.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1f2622886b05f25342fa3fa3f0b584dfababb6c2

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. Thomas J. Cox
4. M. Cappellari
5. R. Somerville
6. Volker Springel
7. T. Naab
8. D. Keres̆

In Instrumentation

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. Thomas J. Cox
4. R. Somerville
5. M. Cappellari
6. D. Keres̆
7. S. Khochfar
8. J. Kormendy

Citations in the corpus

• Galaxy Zoo:bars in disc galaxies (2010, methodology): “There does remain a difference in our overall conclusions with Barazza et al. (2008) and Aguerri et al. (2009) and, in particular, the total bar fraction we find is lower than either of these studies.”
• Stellar population gradients in galaxy discs from the CALIFA survey - The influence of bars (2014, background): “Bars are very common structures; the most recent optical studies indicate that approximately half of all massive and nearby discs galaxies contain bars (Barazza et al. 2008; Aguerri et al. 2009).”
• The population of barred galaxies in the local universe - I. Detection and characterisation of bars (2009, methodology): “In addition, our finding that early- and late-type spirals host a larger fraction of bars than lenticular galaxies, was also in agreement with Barazza et al. (2008) since they found that disc-dominated galaxies with low bulge-to-disc luminosity ratio display a higher bar fraction than galaxies with…”
• BULGE n AND B/T IN HIGH-MASS GALAXIES: CONSTRAINTS ON THE ORIGIN OF BULGES IN HIERARCHICAL MODELS (2008, result): “This is consistent with earlier work (Odewahn 1996; Barazza et al. 2008; Marinova et al. 2008; Aguerri et al. 2008, in prep.) where an enhanced optical bar fraction is seen is galaxies with late Hubble types or low B/D.”
• A CLASSICAL MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF GALAXIES IN THE SPITZER SURVEY OF STELLAR STRUCTURE IN GALAXIES (S4G) (2015, unknown): “For example, Barazza et al. (2008) used ellipse fits to infer the presence of bars in a large sample of nearby SDSS galaxies over the absolute magnitude range −18.5 ≤ MB ≤ −22.0, and concluded that 87% of bulgeless disk galaxies are barred as opposed to 44% of bulge+disk galaxies.”
• Galaxy Zoo: Passive Red Spirals . (2009, methodology): “Both however use automated techniques to identify disk/spiral samples based largely on concentration (Aguerri et al. 2009) and colour (Barazza et al. 2008, this study does also consider Sersic fits, but the final results are from colour selected “spirals” only), so we expect systematic differences…”
• HOW DO DISKS SURVIVE MERGERS? (2008, background): “…not especially robust at separating a small disk (in a bulge-dominated system) from e.g. other kinematic subcomponents or rotating bulges (a well-known observational difficulty, see e.g. Balcells et al. 2007; Kormendy et al. 2008; Marinova & Jogee 2007; Barazza et al. 2008, and references therein).”
• The Milky Way’s stellar disk (2013, background): “The innermost Disk: Massive late-type galaxies like ours often have bars at the center (Barazza et al. 2008) and a thick central portion that is described as a pseudo-bulge (e.g., Kormendy & Kennicutt 2004); the Milky Way fits that pattern, as it has a large-scale stellar bar (Binney et al. 1991;…”