# Evidence of a fast bar in the weakly-interacting galaxy NGC 4264 with MUSE

## TL;DR

This study measures the properties of the bar in galaxy NGC 4264, revealing it is a fast-rotating bar likely formed by internal processes rather than external interactions, using advanced spectroscopic techniques.

## Contribution

First detailed measurement of the bar pattern speed and rotation rate in NGC 4264, demonstrating a fast bar in a galaxy undergoing tidal interaction.

## Key findings

- NGC 4264 hosts a strong, large, fast-rotating bar.
- The bar's rotation is consistent with internal formation mechanisms.
- The bar's pattern speed was precisely measured using MUSE spectroscopy.

## Abstract

We present surface photometry and stellar kinematics of NGC 4264, a barred lenticular galaxy in the region of the Virgo Cluster undergoing a tidal interaction with one of its neighbours, NGC 4261. We measured the bar radius (a_bar=3.2 +/-0.5 kpc) and strength (S_bar=0.31+/-0.04) of NGC 4264 from Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging and its bar pattern speed (Omega_bar=71+/-4 km/s/kpc) using the Tremaine-Weinberg method with stellar-absorption integral-field spectroscopy performed with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer at the Very Large Telescope. We derived the circular velocity (V_circ=189+/-10 km/s) by correcting the stellar streaming velocity for asymmetric drift and calculated the corotation radius (R_cor=2.8+/-0.2 kpc) from the bar pattern speed. Finally, we estimated the bar rotation rate (R_cor/a_bar=0.88+/-0.23). We find that NGC 4264 hosts a strong and large bar extending out to the corotation radius. This means that the bar is rotating as fast as it can like nearly all the other bars measured so far even when the systematic error due to the uncertainty on the disc position angle is taken into account. The accurate measurement of the bar rotation rate allows us to infer that the formation of the bar of NGC 4264 was due to self-generated internal processes and not triggered by the ongoing interaction.