Rings and bars: unmasking secular evolution of galaxies

Secular evolution gradually shapes galaxies by internal processes, in contrast to early cosmological evolution which is more rapid. An important driver of secular evolution is the flow of gas from the disk into the central regions, often under the influence of a bar. In this paper, we review several new observational results on bars and nuclear rings in galaxies. They show that these components are intimately linked to each other, and to the properties of their host galaxy. We briefly discuss how upcoming observations, e.g., imaging from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G), will lead to significant further advances in this area of research.Comment: Invited review at "Galaxies and their Masks", celebrating Ken Freeman's 70-th birthday, Sossusvlei, Namibia, April 2010. To be published by Springer, New York, editors D.L. Block, K.C. Freeman, & I. Puerari; minor change

The Fueling and Evolution of AGN: Internal and External Triggers

In this chapter, I review the fueling and evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN) under the influence of internal and external triggers, namely intrinsic properties of host galaxies (morphological or Hubble type, color, presence of bars and other non-axisymmetric features, etc) and external factors such as environment and interactions. The most daunting challenge in fueling AGN is arguably the angular momentum problem as even matter located at a radius of a few hundred pc must lose more than 99.99 % of its specific angular momentum before it is fit for consumption by a BH. I review mass accretion rates, angular momentum requirements, the effectiveness of different fueling mechanisms, and the growth and mass density of black BHs at different epochs. I discuss connections between the nuclear and larger-scale properties of AGN, both locally and at intermediate redshifts, outlining some recent results from the GEMS and GOODS HST surveys.Comment: Invited Review Chapter to appear in LNP Volume on "AGN Physics on All Scales", Chapter 6, in press. 40 pages, 12 figures. Typo in Eq 5 correcte

The Mass Profile and Shape of Bars in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G): Search for an Age Indicator for Bars

Galaxie

Properties of bars and bulges in the Hubble sequence

Peer reviewe

The Gravitational Torque of Bars

Original paper can be found at: http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/cs/253.html--Copyright Astronomical Society of the PacificWe have determined the gravitational torque of a sample of 45 galaxies observed at K band with the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope. The results of this sample, combined with those for a sample of 30 galaxies previously analysed (Buta & Block 2001), show that the gravitational bar torque correlates only weakly with the optical bar type listed in the Revised Shapley-Ames and de Vaucouleurs systems. In fact, Some classically unbarred galaxies have larger bar torques than classically barred galaxies. The Hubble classification scheme poorly recognizes the gravitational influences of the bar perturbation in the force field

Penetrating the Mask: All Spiral Galaxies become barred on bar torque scales between zero and six

Peer reviewe

A comprehensive examination of the optical morphologies of 719 isolated galaxies in the AMIGA sample

Using images from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 8, we have re-examined the morphology of 719 galaxies from the Analysis of the interstellar Medium in Isolated GAlaxies (AMIGA) project, a sample consisting of the most isolated galaxies that have yet been identified. The goal is to further improve the classifications of these galaxies by examining them in the context of the Comprehensive de Vaucouleurs revised Hubble-Sandage (CVRHS) system, which includes recognition of features that go beyond the original de Vaucouleurs point of view. Our results confirm previous findings that isolated galaxies are found across the complete revised Hubble sequence, with intermediate- to late-type (Sb-Sc) spirals being relatively more common. Elmegreen Arm Classifications are also presented, and show that more than 50 per cent of the 514 spirals in the sample for which an arm class (AC) could be judged are grand design (AC 8,9,12). The visual bar fraction for the sample is ≈50 per cent, but only 16 per cent are classified as strongly barred (SB). The dominant family classification is SA (non-barred), the dominant inner variety classification is (s) (pure spiral), and the dominant outer variety classification is no outer ring, pseudo-ring, or lens. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test is used to check for potential biases in the morphological interpretations, and for any possible relation between rings, bars, and ACs with local environment and far-infrared excess. The connection between morphology and stellar mass is also examined for a subset of the sample. © 2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.We acknowledge the support of grant AYA2015-65973-C3-1-R from the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), through the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitveness (MINECO). This work has also been supported by the Spanish Science Ministry 'Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa' Program under grant SEV-2017-0709. MJ is supported by a Juan de la Cierva formacion fellowship. Funding for the SDSS and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.Peer reviewe

Erratum: Morphology and environment of galaxies with disc breaks in the S4^4G and NIRS0S

International audienc

Morphology and environment of galaxies with disc breaks in the S4^4G and NIRS0S

International audienceWe study the surface brightness profiles of disc galaxies in the 3.6 mu m images from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S(4)G) and K-s-band images from the Near-Infrared S0-Sa galaxy Survey (NIRS0S). We particularly connect properties of single exponential (type I), downbending double exponential (type II), and upbending double exponential (type III) disc profile types, to structural components of galaxies by using detailed morphological classifications, and size measurements of rings and lenses. We also study how the local environment of the galaxies affects the profile types by calculating parameters describing the environmental density and the tidal interaction strength. We find that in majority of type II profiles the break radius is connected with structural components such as rings, lenses, and spirals. The exponential disc sections of all three profile types, when considered separately, follow the disc scaling relations. However, the outer discs of type II, and the inner discs of type III, are similar in scalelength to the single exponential discs. Although the different profile types have similar mean environmental parameters, the scalelengths of the type III profiles show a positive correlation with the tidal interaction strength