Lost in secular evolution: the case of a low mass classical bulge

The existence of a classical bulge in disk galaxies holds important clue to the assembly history of galaxies. Finding observational evidence of very low mass classical bulges particularly in barred galaxies including our Milky Way, is a challenging task as the bar driven secular evolution might bring significant dynamical change to these bulges alongside the stellar disk. Using high-resolution N-body simulation, we show that if a cool stellar disk is assembled around a non-rotating low-mass classical bulge, the disk rapidly grows a strong bar within a few rotation time scales. Later, the bar driven secular process transform the initial classical bulge into a flattened rotating stellar system whose central part also have grown a bar-like component rotating in sync with the disk bar. During this time, a boxy/peanut (hereafter, B/P) bulge is formed via the buckling instability of the disk bar and the vertical extent of this B/P bulge being slightly higher than that of the classical bulge, it encompasses the whole classical bulge. The resulting composite bulge appears to be both photometrically and kinematically identical to a B/P bulge without any obvious signature of the classical component. Our analysis suggest that many barred galaxies in the local universe might be hiding such low-mass classical bulges. We suggest that stellar population and chemodynamical analysis might be required in establishing the evidence for such low-mass classical bulges.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted by ApJ Letter

Secular evolution and cylindrical rotation in boxy/peanut bulges: impact of initially rotating classical bulges

Boxy/peanut bulges are believed to originate from galactic discs through secular processes. A little explored question is how this evolution would be modified if the initial disc was assembled around a preexisting classical bulge. Previously we showed that a low-mass initial classical bulge (ICB), as might have been present in Milky Way-like galaxies, can spin up significantly by gaining angular momentum from a bar formed through disc instability. Here we investigate how the disc instability and the kinematics of the final boxy/peanut (BP) bulge depend on the angular momentum of such a low-mass ICB. We show that a strong bar forms and transfers angular momentum to the ICB in all our models. However, rotation in the ICB limits the emission of the bar's angular momentum, which in turn changes the size and growth of the bar, and of the BP bulge formed from the disc. The final BP bulge in these models is a superposition of the BP bulge formed via the buckling instability and the spun-up ICB. We find that the long-term kinematics of the composite BP bulges in our simulations is independent of the rotation of the ICB, and is always described by cylindrical rotation. However, as a result of the co-evolution between bulge and bar, deviations from cylindrical rotation are seen during the early phases of secular evolution, and may correspond to similar deviations observed in some bulges. We provide a simple criterion to quantify deviations from pure cylindrical rotation, apply it to all our model bulges, and also illustrate its use for two galaxies: NGC7332 and NGC4570.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures; accepted for publication in MNRA

Spinning dark matter halos promote bar formation

Stellar bars are the most common non-axisymmetric structures in galaxies and their impact on the evolution of disc galaxies at all cosmological times can be significant. Classical theory predicts that stellar discs are stabilized against bar formation if embedded in massive spheroidal dark matter halos. However, dark matter halos have been shown to facilitate the growth of bars through resonant gravitational interaction. Still, it remains unclear why some galaxies are barred and some are not. In this study, we demonstrate that co-rotating (i.e., in the same sense as the disc rotating) dark matter halos with spin parameters in the range of $0 \le \lambda_{\mathrm{dm}} \le 0.07$ - which are a definite prediction of modern cosmological models - promote the formation of bars and boxy bulges and therefore can play an important role in the formation of pseudobulges in a kinematically hot dark matter dominated disc galaxies. We find continuous trends for models with higher halo spins: bars form more rapidly, the forming slow bars are stronger, and the final bars are longer. After 2 Gyrs of evolution, the amplitude of the bar mode in a model with $\lambda_{\mathrm{dm}} = 0.05$ is a factor of ~6 times higher, A_2/A_0 = 0.23, than in the non-rotating halo model. After 5 Gyrs, the bar is ~ 2.5 times longer. The origin of this trend is that more rapidly spinning (co-rotating) halos provide a larger fraction of trailing dark matter particles that lag behind the disc bar and help growing the bar by taking away its angular momentum by resonant interactions. A counter-rotating halo suppresses the formation of a bar in our models. We discuss potential consequences for forming galaxies at high-redshift and present day low mass galaxies which have converted only a small fraction of their baryons into stars.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Survival of pure disk galaxies over the last 8 billion years

Pure disk galaxies without any bulge component, i.e., neither classical nor pseudo, seem to have escaped the affects of merger activity inherent to hierarchical galaxy formation models as well as strong internal secular evolution. We discover that a significant fraction (15 - 18 %) of disk galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field (0.4 < z < 1.0) as well as in the local Universe (0.02 < z < 0.05) are such pure disk systems (hereafter, PDS). The spatial distribution of light in these PDS is well described by a single exponential function from the outskirts to the centre and appears to have remained intact over the last 8 billion years keeping the mean central surface brightness and scale-length nearly constant. These two disk parameters of PDS are brighter and shorter, respectively, than of those disks which are part of disk galaxies with bulges. Since the fraction of PDS as well as their profile defining parameters do not change, it indicates that these galaxies have not witnessed either major mergers or multiple minor mergers since z~1. However, there is substantial increase in their total stellar mass and total size over the same time range. This suggests that smooth accretion of cold gas via cosmic filaments is the most probable mode of their evolution. We speculate that PDS are dynamically hotter and cushioned in massive dark matter halos which may prevent them from undergoing strong secular evolution.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters (Astrophysical Journal Letters) (5 pages, 4 figures

Angular momentum transport and evolution of lopsided galaxies

The surface brightness distribution in the majority of stellar galactic discs falls off exponentially. Often what lies beyond such a stellar disc is the neutral hydrogen gas whose distribution also follows a nearly exponential profile at least for a number of nearby disc galaxies. Both the stars and gas are commonly known to host lopsided asymmetry especially in the outer parts of a galaxy. The role of such asymmetry in the dynamical evolution of a galaxy has not been explored so far. Following Lindblad's original idea of kinematic density waves, we show that the outer part of an exponential disc is ideally suitable for hosting lopsided asymmetry. Further, we compute the transport of angular momentum in the combined stars and gas disc embedded in a dark matter halo. We show that in a pure star and gas disc, there is a transition point where the free precession frequency of a lopsided mode, $\Omega -\kappa$, changes from retrograde to prograde and this in turn reverses the direction of angular momentum flow in the disc leading to an unphysical behaviour. We show that this problem is overcome in the presence of a dark matter halo, which sets the angular momentum flow outwards as required for disc evolution, provided the lopsidedness is leading in nature. This, plus the well-known angular momentum transport in the inner parts due to spiral arms, can facilitate an inflow of gas from outside perhaps through the cosmic filaments.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Dynamical evolution of a bulge in an N-body model of the Milky Way

The detailed dynamical structure of the bulge in the Milky Way is currently under debate. Although kinematics of the bulge stars can be well reproduced by a boxy-bulge, the possible existence of a small embedded classical bulge can not be ruled out. We study the dynamical evolution of a small classical bulge in a model of the Milky Way using a self-consistent high resolution N-body simulation. Detailed kinematics and dynamical properties of such a bulge are presented.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of "Assembling the Puzzle of the Milky Way", Le Grand Bornand (April 17-22, 2011), C. Reyle, A. Robin, M. Schultheis (eds.

Spin-up of massive classical bulges during secular evolution

Classical bulges in spiral galaxies are known to rotate but the origin of this observed rotational motion is not well understood. It has been shown recently that a low-mass classical bulge (ClB) in a barred galaxy can acquire rotation from absorbing a significant fraction of the angular momentum emitted by the bar. Our aim here is to investigate whether bars can spin up also more massive ClBs during the secular evolution of the bar, and to study the kinematics and dynamics of these ClBs. We use a set of self-consistent N-body simulations to study the interaction of ClBs with a bar that forms self-consistently in the disk. We use orbital spectral analysis to investigate the angular momentum gain by the classical bulge stars. We show that the ClBs gain, on average, about 2 - 6% of the disk's initial angular momentum within the bar region. Most of this angular momentum gain occurs via low-order resonances, particularly 5:2 resonant orbits. A density wake forms in the ClB which corotates and aligns with the bar at the end of the evolution. The spin-up process creates a characteristic linear rotation profile and mild tangential anisotropy in the ClB. The induced rotation is small in the centre but significant beyond $\sim2$ bulge half mass radii, where it leads to mass-weighted $V/\sigma \sim 0.2$, and reaches a local $V_{max}/\sigma_{in} \sim 0.5$ at around the scale of the bar. The resulting $V/\sigma$ is tightly correlated with the ratio of the bulge size to the bar size. In all models, a box/peanut bulge forms suggesting that composite bulges may be common. Bar-bulge resonant interaction in barred galaxies can provide some spin up of massive ClBs, but the process appears to be less efficient than for low-mass ClBs. Further angular momentum transfer due to nuclear bars or gas inflow would be required to explain the observed rotation if it is not primordial.Comment: 11 Pages, 14 figures; accepted for publication by A &