Testing a theoretical prediction for bar formation in galaxies with bulges

¹ Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Koramangla, Bangalore 560034, India
e-mail: skkataria.iit@gmail.com
² Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India

Received: 18 January 2020
Accepted: 9 June 2020

Abstract

Earlier studies have shown that massive bulges impede bar formation in disk galaxies. Recent N-body simulations have derived a bar formation criterion that depends on the radial bulge force in a galaxy disk. We use those simulations to show that bars can form only when the force constant FB <  0.13, where FB depends on the ratio of the bulge force to the total force of the galaxy at twice the disk scale length 2R_d. In this article, we test this theoretical prediction using observational data obtained from the literature. Our sample consists of 63 barred galaxies with a wide range of Hubble classes taken from the S⁴G catalog; for the galaxies that we include, bulge, disk, and bar decomposition has been carried out. We find that 92% of our sample galaxies satisfy the condition FB <  0.13 for bar formation in galaxies and hence agree with the bar formation criterion given by the simulations.