The relationship between nuclear rings and the overall galaxy morphology

TL;DR

This study investigates how the overall galaxy morphology, especially the presence and strength of bars, influences the structure and classification of nuclear rings in 52 galaxies, revealing correlations between ring types and galaxy features.

Contribution

It classifies nuclear rings into three types and links their morphology to galaxy type and bar strength, providing new insights into galaxy secular evolution.

Findings

Two-armed rings are common in early-type, strongly barred galaxies.

Twoarms+ rings are associated with later-type, weakly barred galaxies.

Many-armed rings are linked to late-type, flocculent galaxies with weak bars.

Abstract

Nuclear rings are long-lived structures, allowing the molecular gas inside to become sufficiently dense to initiate star formation. This makes them a crucial element in the study of secular evolution. However, the morphology of nuclear rings, and their potential correlations with that of the galactic hosts, remains an open subject. We examine 52 star-forming nuclear rings from the Atlas of Images of NUclear Rings (AINUR) and correlate the overall galaxy morphology, in particular non-axisymmetric features, with the morphology of the nuclear ring. We define three different classes of nuclear rings: two-armed rings dominated by two dust lanes, twoarms+ rings crowded with secondary dust lanes in addition to the two main ones, and many-armed rings with multiple armlets of similar prevalence. We employ unsharp-masked Hubble Space Telescope images to study the structure of nuclear rings. We find that two-armed rings are more common in early-type grand design galaxies with strong bars. Twoarms+ rings are related to later-type and more weakly barred galaxies, both grand design and multi-armed. Lastly, many-armed rings are typically associated with later-type flocculent and multi-armed galaxies with the weakest bars. In addition, we examine the regions inside the nuclear rings and observe nuclear spirals in 28 galaxies ( 90 % of those galaxies for which the interior of the nuclear ring is resolved). We conclude that the global morphology of the host galaxy and, more precisely, the presence and properties of a bar play a fundamental role in determining the morphology of the nuclear ring and the nuclear region. We suggest that two-armed rings are associated with a 180deg structure forced by a strong bar, many-armed rings are associated with a very weak or absent 180deg structure, and twoarms+ rings are found in intermediate cases.