Related papers: The role of bars
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…
New observations in favour of a significant role of secular evolution are reviewed: central star formation boosted in pseudo-bulge barred galaxies, relations between bulge and disk, evidence for rejuvenated bulges. Numerical simulations…
Dynamical evolution of spiral galaxies is strongly dependent on non-axisymmetric patterns that develop from gravitational instabilities, either spontaneously or externally triggered. Some evolutionary sequences are described through which a…
Galaxy disks evolve through angular momentum transfers between sub-components, like gas, stars, or dark matter halos, through non axi-symmetric instabilities. The speed of this evolution is boosted in presence of a large fraction of cold…
Galaxy morphology has many structures that are suggestive of various processes or stages of secular evolution. Internal perturbations such as bars can drive secular evolution through gravity torques that move gas into the central regions…
Secular evolution gradually shapes galaxies by internal processes, in contrast to early cosmological evolution which is more rapid. An important driver of secular evolution is the flow of gas from the disk into the central regions, often…
Except in the most extreme cases of nuclear activity, either starbursts or AGN, it is difficult to find observationnally a close link between the dynamics and the activity. Theoretically however, the necessary step to fuel the gas to the…
The gas component plays a major role in the dynamics of spiral galaxies, because of its dissipative character, and its ability to exchange angular momentum with stars in the disk. Due to its small velocity dispersion, it triggers…
Bars play a major role in driving the evolution of disk galaxies and in shaping their present properties. They cause angular momentum to be redistributed within the galaxy, emitted mainly from (near-)resonant material at the inner Lindblad…
Bars in spiral galaxies can weaken through gas inflow towards the center, and angular momentum transfer. Several bar episodes can follow one another in the life of the galaxy, if sufficient gas is accreted from the intergalactic medium to…
The life of disk galaxies is likely punctuated with the birth (spontaneous or induced), the aging (quick or slow), and the death (sudden or progressive) of bars. These events are responsible for various major changes of the galaxy which…
From this vast subject, I will pick out and review three specific topics, namely the formation and evolution of bars, the formation of bulges, and the evolution during multiple major mergers. Bars form naturally in galactic discs. Their…
The distribution of gravitational torques and bar strengths in the local Universe is derived from a detailed study of 163 galaxies observed in the near-infrared. The results are compared with numerical models for spiral galaxy evolution. It…
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,…
A model that accounts for the brief flaring of QSOs in the early stages of galaxy formation is proposed. I argue that a bar must develop early in the life of nearly every galaxy and that gas to create and fuel the QSO is driven into the…
Stellar bars are a common feature in massive disc galaxies. On a theoretical ground, the response of gas to a bar is generally thought to cause nuclear starbursts and, possibly, AGN activity once the perturbed gas reaches the central…
Through vertical resonances, bars can produce pseudo-bulges, within secular evolution. Bulges and pseudo-bulges have doubled their mass since z=1. The frequency of bulge-less galaxies at z=0 is difficult to explain, especially since clumpy…
I review the various mechanisms for creating bars in rotating stellar disks, and conclude that the swing-amplified feed-back loop, which produces rapidly tumbling bars, remains the most probable. The bar continues to evolve after its…
Non-axisymmetric modes like spirals and bars are the main driver of the evolution of disks, in transferring angular momentum, and allowing mass accretion. This evolution proceeds through self-regulation and feedback mechanisms, such as bar…
We use high resolution collisionless $N$-body simulations to study the secular evolution of disk galaxies and in particular the final properties of disks that suffer a bar and perhaps a bar-buckling instability. Although we find that bars…