Star Formation Properties in Barred Galaxies(SFB). III. Statistical Study of Bar-driven Secular Evolution using a sample of nearby barred spirals

TL;DR

This study investigates how stellar bars influence star formation in nearby spiral galaxies, revealing that bar strength correlates with star formation activity and suggesting a complex, multi-stage process of secular galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It provides a statistical analysis of star formation in barred galaxies, introducing a criterion to quantify different stages of bar-driven secular evolution.

Findings

Weak bars associate with low star formation activity

Strong bars show diverse star formation patterns

Bulges in strong bars have higher star formation densities

Abstract

Stellar bars are important internal drivers of secular evolution in disk galaxies. Using a sample of nearby spiral galaxies with weak and strong bars, we explore the relationships between the star formation feature and stellar bars in galaxies. We find that galaxies with weak bars tend to be coincide with low concentrical star formation activity, while those with strong bars show a large scatter in the distribution of star formation activity. We find enhanced star formation activity in bulges towards stronger bars, although not predominantly, consistent with previous studies. Our results suggest that different stages of the secular process and many other factors may contribute to the complexity of the secular evolution. In addition, barred galaxies with intense star formation in bars tend to have active star formation in their bulges and disks, and bulges have higher star formation densities than bars and disks, indicating the evolutionary effects of bars. We then derived a possible criterion to quantify the different stages of bar-driven physical process, while future work is needed because of the uncertainties.