The frequency and stellar-mass dependence of boxy/peanut-shaped bulges in barred galaxies

Erwin, Peter und Debattista, Victor P. (2017): The frequency and stellar-mass dependence of boxy/peanut-shaped bulges in barred galaxies. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Bd. 468, Nr. 2: S. 2058-2080

Abstract

From a sample of 84 local barred, moderately inclined disc galaxies, we determine the fraction that hosts boxy or peanut-shaped (B/P) bulges (the vertically thickened inner parts of bars). We find that the frequency of B/P bulges in barred galaxies is a very strong function of stellar mass: 79 per cent of the bars in galaxies with log (M-*/M-circle dot)w greater than or similar to 10.4 have B/P bulges, while only 12 per cent of those in lower mass galaxies do. (We find a similar dependence in data published by Yoshino & Yamauchi for edge-on galaxies.) There are also strong trends with other galaxy parameters - e.g. Hubble type: 77 per cent of S0-Sbc bars, but only 15 per cent of Sc-Sd bars, have B/P bulges - but these appear to be side effects of the correlations of these parameters with stellar mass. In particular, despite indications from models that a high gas content can suppress bar buckling, we find no evidence that the (atomic) gas mass ratio MHI+He/M-* affects the presence of B/P bulges, once the stellar-mass dependence is controlled for. The semimajor axes of B/P bulges range from one-quarter to three-quarters of the full bar size, with a mean of R-box/L-bar = 0.42 +/- 0.09 and R-box/a(epsilon) = 0.53 +/- 0.12 (where R-box is the size of the B/P bulge and a(epsilon) and L-bar are lower and upper limits on the size of the bar).

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Physik
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 530 Physik
• ISSN: 0035-8711
• Sprache: Englisch