New light on the formation and evolution of bars: Trends in the stellar line-strength indices distribution inside the bar region

TL;DR

This study investigates the stellar populations within barred galaxies using line-strength indices to understand their formation and evolution, revealing consistent age and metallicity gradients and their relation to galaxy morphology.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the stellar content and gradients in barred galaxies, highlighting differences based on bar light profiles and morphological features.

Findings

Radial gradients in line-strength indices observed in all galaxies.

Positive metallicity gradients in four galaxies, opposite in two with exponential profiles.

Consistent positive Balmer index gradients indicating younger stellar populations towards the center.

Abstract

Aim: The aim is to study the stellar content of the bar region to constrain its formation and evolution. Methods: Line-strength indices in the bar region of a sample of 6 barred galaxies were employed to derive age and metallicity gradients along the bars using stellar population models. Results: We find clear radial gradients in the line-strength indices for all the galaxies. We find positive gradients within the bar region in the metal indices in four of the six galaxies, and opposite trends in the other two. These latter two galaxies are classified as SAB and they present exponential bar light profiles. For all the galaxies we find a positive gradient in the Balmer indices. There is a clear correlation between the position of morphological features inside the bar region with changes in the slope and value of the indices, which indicate, using stellar population analysis, changes in the stellar populations. Therefore, it seems that the bar regions show a gradient in both age and metallicity, changing radially to younger and more metal rich populations for all the galaxies except for those two with exponential profiles.