Disc galaxies are still settling: The discovery of the smallest nuclear discs and their young stellar bars

TL;DR

This study reports the discovery of the smallest nuclear discs and the youngest stellar bars in disc galaxies, indicating that some galaxies are still dynamically settling and revealing insights into their co-evolution.

Contribution

First detection of nuclear discs smaller than 100 pc and the youngest bars, providing new evidence for ongoing galaxy evolution and bar-disc co-evolution.

Findings

Discovered nuclear discs below 100 pc in size.

Estimated bars formed within the last few billion years.

Found a stronger correlation between nuclear disc size and bar length.

Abstract

When galactic discs settle and become massive enough, they are able to form stellar bars. These non-axisymmetric structures induce shocks in the gas, causing it to flow to the centre where nuclear structures, such as nuclear discs and rings, are formed. Previous theoretical and observational studies have hinted at the co-evolution of bars and nuclear discs, suggesting that nuclear discs grow "inside-out", thereby proposing that smaller discs live in younger bars. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how the bar and the nuclear structures form and evolve with time. The smallest nuclear discs discovered to date tend to be larger than $\sim200~\rm{pc}$, even though some theoretical studies find that when nuclear discs form they can be much smaller. Using MUSE archival data, we report for the first time two extragalactic nuclear discs with radius sizes below $100~\rm{pc}$. Additionally, our estimations reveal the youngest bars found to date. We estimate that the bars in these galaxies formed $4.50^{+1.60}_{-1.10}\rm{(sys)}^{+1.00}_{-0.75}\rm{(stat)}$ and $0.7^{+2.60}\rm{(sys)}^{+0.05}_{-0.05}\rm{(stat)}~\rm{Gyr}$ ago, for NGC\,289 and NGC\,1566, respectively. This suggests that at least some disc galaxies in the Local Universe may still be dynamically settling. By adding these results to previous findings in the literature, we retrieve a stronger correlation between nuclear disc size and bar length and we derive a tentative exponential growth scenario for nuclear discs.