Related papers: Three Mechanisms for Bar Thickening
Star formation is triggered in essentially three ways: (1) the pressures from existing stars collect and squeeze nearby dense gas into gravitationally unstable configurations, (2) random compression from supersonic turbulence makes new…
The emergence of a large-scale stellar bar is one of the most striking features in disc galaxies. By means of state-of-the-art cosmological zoom-in simulations, we study the formation and evolution of bars in Milky Way-like galaxies in a…
A collection of thin structures buckle, bend, and bump into each-other when confined. This contact can lead to the formation of patterns: hair will self-organize in curls; DNA strands will layer into cell nuclei; paper, when crumpled, will…
We perform controlled N-body simulations of disc galaxies growing within live dark matter (DM) haloes to present-day galaxies that contain both thin and thick discs. We consider two types of models: a) thick-disc initial conditions to which…
We use high-resolution numerical simulations to follow the barred disk evolution in a suite of models with progressively more massive stellar bulges, with bulge-to-total (disk$+$bulge) mass ratios of $B/T\sim 0-0.25$, embedded in dark…
Recent progress in the understanding of the role of bars and gravitational instabilities in galaxy disks is reviewed. It has been proposed that bars can produce mass transfer towards the center, and progressively metamorphose late-type…
I discuss several aspects of secular evolution linked to bars and to boxy/peanut bulges, based on a very large number of high resolution, fully self-consistent $N$-body simulations. When the bar forms, it is as thin as the disc. Its…
We present a novel interpretation of the previously puzzling different behaviours of stellar populations of the Milky Way's bulge. We first show, by means of pure N-body simulations, that initially co-spatial stellar populations with…
Present in over 45% of local spirals, boxy and peanut-shaped bulges are generally interpreted as edge-on bars and may represent a key phase in the evolution of bulges. Aiming to test such claims, the kinematic properties of self-consistent…
Kn-band imaging of a sample of 30 edge-on spiral galaxies with a boxy or peanut-shaped (B/PS) bulge is discussed. Galaxies with a B/PS bulge tend to have a more complex morphology than galaxies with other bulge types, unsharp-masked images…
A multi-faceted approach is described to constrain the importance of bar-driven evolution in disk galaxies, particularly bulge formation. N-body simulations are used to construct stellar kinematic bar diagnostics for edge-on systems and to…
The presence of dark gaps, a preferential light deficit along the bar minor axis, is observationally well known. The properties of dark gaps are thought to be associated with the properties of bars, and their spatial locations are often…
The physical mechanisms responsible for bar formation and destruction in galaxies remain a subject of debate. While we have gained valuable insight into how bars form and evolve from isolated idealized simulations, in the cosmological…
We propose a new dynamical mechanism to account for the bar off-centering observed in many barred galaxies. It is based on the presence of a m=1 density wave, non-linearly excited by the strong m=2 component due to the linearly unstable bar…
This work examines the evolution of bar formation in disk galaxies over the last 6 giga-years by analyzing the barred galaxy fraction as a function of key structural parameters. A representative sample of local and distant field galaxies…
Barred galaxies constitute about two thirds of observed disc galaxies. Bars affect not only the mass distribution of gas and stars, but also that of the dark matter. An elongation of the inner dark matter halo is known as the halo bar. We…
When bars form within galaxy formation simulations in the standard cosmological context, dynamical friction with dark matter (DM) causes them to rotate rather slowly. However, almost all observed galactic bars are fast in terms of the ratio…
Take a drinking straw and bend it from its ends. After sufficient bending, the tube buckles forming a kink, where the curvature is localized in a very small area. This instability, known generally as the Brazier effect, is inherent to…
The inner parts of many spiral galaxies are dominated by bars. These are strong non-axisymmetric features which significantly affect orbits of stars and dark matter particles. One of the main effects is the dynamical resonances between…
This is the third of a series of papers presenting the first attempt to analyze the growth of the bar instability in a consistent cosmological scenario. In the previous two articles we explored the role of the cosmology on stellar disks,…