Related papers: A New Challenge: Bar Formation and Secular Evoluti…
It was argued in the past that bulges of galaxies cannot be formed through collisionless secular evolution because that would violate constraints on the phase-space density: the phase-space density in bulges is several times larger than in…
We review internal secular evolution in galaxy disks -- the fundamental process by which isolated disks evolve. We concentrate on the buildup of dense central features that look like classical, merger-built bulges but that were made slowly…
Bars drive the dynamical evolution of disk galaxies by redistributing mass and angular momentum, and they are ubiquitous in present-day spirals. Early studies of the Hubble Deep Field reported a dramatic decline in the rest-frame optical…
We have done a robust statistical study of the behaviour of color profiles for 257 Sbc galaxies, having determined (B-V) and (U-B) color gradients, as well as color indices of bulges and disks separately. Applying a bidimensional…
We use the magnetic-hydrodynamical simulation TNG50 to study the evolution of barred massive disc galaxies. Massive spiral galaxies are already present as early as $z=4$, and bar formation takes place already at those early times. The bars…
Evolution of stellar bars in disk galaxies is accompanied by dynamical instabilities and secular changes. Following the vertical buckling instability, the bars are known to weaken dramatically and develop a pronounced boxy/peanut shape when…
We propose that massive central objects form in the centers of the bars which must develop in young high-surface density galactic disks. Large-scale dynamics shuts off the growth of the central mass before it reaches $\sim 2%$ of the disk…
We determine central values and radial trends in the stellar populations of the bulges of a sample of 28 edge-on S0-Sb disk galaxies, 22 of which are boxy/peanut-shaped (and therefore barred). Our principal findings are the following. (1)…
I present results from the modeling of stellar bars in nearly 300 barred galaxies in the local universe through parametric multi-component multi-band image fitting. The surface brightness radial profile of bars is described using a Sersic…
We present an analysis of the environmental dependence of bars and bulges in disc galaxies, using a volume-limited catalogue of 15810 galaxies at z<0.06 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with visual morphologies from the Galaxy Zoo 2…
We study a possible formation mechanism for elliptical/S0 galaxies using N-body simulations with GRAPE. A close galaxy encounter which does not lead to a merger can induce a strong bar in an initially axisymmetric disk. This bar is unstable…
While bars are common in disk galaxies, their formation conditions are not well understood. We use $N$-body simulations to study bar formation and evolution in isolated galaxies consisting of a stellar disk, a classical bulge, and a dark…
Numerical simulations of double-barred galaxies predict the build-up of different structural components (e.g., bulges, inner discs) in the central regions of disc galaxies. In those simulations, inner bars have a prominent role in the…
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…
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…
Along with a brief analysis we present data obtained from BVRI and Ks images of a sample of 19 galaxies (18 barred and 1 unbarred) which will be further explored in a future paper. We measured the lengths and colors of the bars, created…
The formation and evolution of the Milky Way's disc, bar, and bulge remain fundamentally limited by the lack of a contiguous, Galaxy-wide, high-precision chemo-dynamical map. Key open questions - including the survival or destruction of the…
Bar structures are present in about half of local disk galaxies and play pivotal roles in secular galaxy evolution. Bars impose a non-axisymmetric perturbation to the rotating disk and transport gas inward to feed central starburst and,…
Galaxy mergers and interactions are mechanisms which could drive the formation of bars. Therefore, we could expect that the fraction of barred galaxies increases with the local density. Here we show the first results of an extensive search…
We present the first study of bars in the local Universe, based on the Sloan Digitized Sky Survey (SDSS). The large sample of ~5000 local galaxies provides the largest study to date of local bars and minimizes the effect of cosmic variance.…