Boxy/Peanut bulges, vertical buckling and galactic bars

TL;DR

This paper investigates the properties and formation of boxy/peanut bulges in disk galaxies, analyzing a large set of N-body simulations to develop methods for measuring their features and understanding their relation to stellar bars.

Contribution

It introduces and compares various measurement techniques for boxy/peanut bulge properties using simulations, aiming to infer galactic structures from different viewing angles.

Findings

Methods for measuring bulge strength, shape, and asymmetry are developed and compared.

Correlations are identified to infer bulge and bar properties from face-on and edge-on galaxy observations.

The study enhances understanding of the link between bulges and bars in galaxy evolution.

Abstract

Boxy/peanut bulges in disk galaxies have been associated to stellar bars. In this talk, we discuss the different properties of such bulges and their relation with the corresponding bar, using a very large sample of a few hundred numerical N-body simulations. We present and inter-compare various methods of measuring the boxy/peanut bulge properties, namely its strength, shape and possible asymmetry. Some of these methods can be applied to both simulations and observations. Our final goal is to get correlations that will allow us to obtain information on the boxy/peanut bulge for a galaxy viewed face-on as well as information on the bars of galaxies viewed edge-on.