Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2002-01-09
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
10 pages, 4 figures, using gh2001-asp.sty (included) and epsf.sty. Invited review at "Disks of Galaxies: Kinematics, Dynamics
Scientific paper
This paper describes a framework for studying galaxy morphology, particularly bar strength, in a quantitative manner, and presents applications of this approach that reveal observational evidence for secular evolution in bar morphology. The distribution of bar strength in galaxies is quite strongly bimodal, suggesting that barred and unbarred systems are distinct entities, and that any evolution between these two states must occur on a relatively rapid timescale. Bars' strengths appear to be correlated with their pattern speeds, implying that these structures weaken as they start to slow, and disappear entirely before the bars have slowed significantly. There is also tantalizing evidence that bars are rare beyond a redshift of z ~ 0.7, indicating that galaxies have only recently evolved to a point where bars can readily form.
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