We propose a theory to explain the formation of both spirals and rings in barred galaxies using a common dynamical framework. It is based on the orbital motion driven by the unstable equilibrium points of the rotating bar potential. Thus, spirals, rings and pseudo-rings are related to the invariant manifolds associated to the periodic orbits around these equilibrium points. We examine the parameter space of three barred galaxy models and discuss the formation of the different morphological structures according to the properties of the bar model. We also study the influence of the shape of the rotation curve in the outer parts, by making families of models with rising, flat or falling rotation curves in the outer parts. The differences between spiral and ringed structures arise from differences in the dynamical parameters of the host galaxies.
We consider a scenario of formation of the spiral structure in barred galaxies. This scenario includes the new non-resonant mechanism of elongation of spirals, due to the characteristic behaviour of the gravitational potential beyond the principal spiral arms.
We propose a new theory to explain the formation of spiral arms and of all types of outer rings in barred galaxies. We have extended and applied the technique used in celestial mechanics to compute transfer orbits. Thus, our theory is based on the chaotic orbital motion driven by the invariant manifolds associated to the periodic orbits around the hyperbolic equilibrium points. In particular, spiral arms and outer rings are related to the presence of heteroclinic or homoclinic orbits. Thus, R1 rings are associated to the presence of heteroclinic orbits, while R1R2 rings are associated to the p…
We propose a theory to explain the formation of spiral arms and of all types of outer rings in barred galaxies, extending and applying the technique used in celestial mechanics to compute transfer orbits. Thus, our theory is based on the chaotic orbital motion driven by the invariant manifolds associated to the periodic orbits around the hyperbolic equilibrium points. In particular, spiral arms and outer rings are related to the presence of heteroclinic or homoclinic orbits. Thus, R1 rings are associated to the presence of heteroclinic orbits, while R1R2 rings are associated to the presence of…
The data from a CO(1 - 0) mapping survey of 40 nearby spiral galaxies performed with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope are presented. The criteria of the sample selection were (1) RC3 morphological type in the range Sa to Scd, (2) distance less than 25 Mpc, (3) inclination angle less than 79deg (RC3), (4) flux at 100 um higher than ~ 10 Jy, (5) spiral structure is not destroyed by interaction. The maps of CO cover most of the optical disk of the galaxies. We investigated the influence of bar on the distribution of molecular gas in spiral galaxies using these data. We confirmed that the degree of cen…
An objective prism H alpha survey has shown that there is a population of early type spiral galaxies in nearby clusters with strong central bursts of star formation which could be due to galaxy--galaxy tidal interactions. Such galaxies are rarely found in the field.
A study of the distribution of barred and nonbarred disk galaxies in the Virgo cluster is presented in an attempt to use the frequency and spatial distribution of galaxies with specific morphological features to study the efficiency of various environmental effects on the evolution of disk galaxies in clusters. The velocity distribution of the barred spirals in the Virgo region is clearly different than that of the nonbarred spirals, suggesting that barred spirals are more common in the main condensation of the cluster. A sample cleansed of galaxies not belonging to the main cluster condensati…
The unstable invariant manifolds of the short-period family of periodic orbits around the unstable Lagrangian points $L_1$ and $L_2$ of a barred galaxy define loci in the configuration space which take the form of a trailing spiral pattern. In the present paper we investigate this association in the case of the self-consistent models of Kaufmann & Contopoulos (1996) which provide an approximation of real barred-spiral galaxies. We also examine the relation of `response' models of barred-spiral galaxies with the theory of the invariant manifolds. Our main results are the following: The invarian…
In this and in a previous paper (Romero-Gomez et al. 2006) we propose a theory to explain the formation of both spirals and rings in barred galaxies using a common dynamical framework. It is based on the orbital motion driven by the unstable equilibrium points of the rotating bar potential. Thus, spirals, rings and pseudo-rings are related to the invariant manifolds associated to the periodic orbits around these equilibrium points. We examine the parameter space of three barred galaxy models and discuss the formation of the different morphological structures according to the properties of the …
The frequency of barred spiral galaxies as a function of redshift contains important information on the gravitational influence of stellar disks in their dark matter halos and also may distinguish between contemporary theories for the origin of galactic bulges. In this paper we present a new quantitative method for determining the strength of barred spiral structure, and verify its robustness to redshift-dependent effects. By combining galaxy samples from the Hubble Deep Field North with newly available data from the Hubble Deep Field South, we are able to define a statistical sample of 18 obj…
We show observations obtained with the integral field spectrometer OASIS for the central regions of a sample of barred galaxies. The high spatial resolution of the instrument allows to distinguish various structures within these regions as defined by stellar populations of different ages and metallicities. From these data we obtain important clues about the star formation history. But we advise that, in order to obtain adequately the evolutionary sequence, a combination of chemical and synthesis models may be necessary.
The central region of the barred spiral galaxy M83 reveals a polar-nucleus dust lane, wh ich extends from the NE molecular bar and crosses the central bulge. Its SW counterpart is not visible, being hidden behind the bulge. This asymmetry, in spite of the galaxy's face-on orientation and the symmetric bar struct ure in the CO-line emission, indicates that the dark lane is an off-plane structure. Such a ``polar-nucleus'' structure can be formed by a non-coplanar, three-dimensional acc retion in a warped disk.
New CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) profiles complemented by data from the literature are used to obtain CO linewidths for 29 barred spiral galaxies with young nuclear starbursts. The ages of the starbursts were estimated from optical spectroscopy and recent evolutionary synthesis models. The CO linewidths and the starburst ages are correlated : galaxies with young (4-6 Myr) starbursts display narrow (< 100 km/s) CO line while those with older starbursts show broader CO lines. We discuss several scenarios of the gas dynamics during the nuclear starbursts' evolution to interpret the correlation.
We study the molecular gas properties in the central kiloparsec of 29 barred and 15 unbarred spirals from the BIMA Survey of Nearby Galaxies (SONG). We find that the mean nuclear molecular gas surface density of barred spirals (<Sigma_{nuc}>=309 +/- 71 Msun pc^{-2}) is three times higher than that of unbarred spirals (<Sigma_{nuc}>=107 +/- 29 Msun pc^{-2}). Nine out of the eleven bars with Sigma_{nuc} > 300 Msun pc^{-2} are early types. Comparison with estimates of the star formation threshold density (Sigma_{crit}) indicates that enhanced star formation in bars may be due to a larger fraction…
We report observations at mid-infrared and sub-millimeter wavelengths of Centaurus A (CenA, NGC 5128), the giant elliptical galaxy that harbors the closest radio loud Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) to Earth. The dust emission from the deep interior of CenA reveals a bisymmetric structure with a diameter of 5' (5 kpc), centred at the AGN. This structure is remarkably similar to that of a barred spiral galaxy, with the bar lying in a plane that is tilted ~18 degrees from the line of sight. The true nature of the distribution of dust in the inner regions of CenA is noticeably displaced from the mo…
We report the discovery of emission from Wolf-Rayet stars in a giant HII region 4.5 arcsec South of the nucleus of the IRAS barred spiral galaxy Mrk 712. The ratio of WNL to OV stars, estimated from the luminosity of the HeII 4686 line, is 0.2. By comparison with starburst and stellar evolution models, we find that this high value is only compatible with a very young starburst episode (3 - 4 Myr) and a flat initial mass function (Gamma = -1). The presence of the [ArV] line reveals that the HII region is strongly ionized by the hot Wolf-Rayet stars. The comparison with other barred Wolf-Rayet g…
HI observations with the VLA of the late-type barred galaxy NGC 925 show clear streaming motions along four spiral arms close to the minor axis. A transition from inward streaming to outward streaming is found, presumably marking the corotation resonance. The realm of inward streaming extends to very large radii, corresponding to 1.3R25 and 1.7 bar radii deprojected. This implies that most of the visible disk is inside corotation, although the HI disk extends beyond, at least to 2R25. As a result, either the bar and the spirals are rotating separately or the bar rotates very slowly compared to…
We report the gross properties of the velocity field of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3367. The following values were found: inclination with respect to the plane of the sky, i=30 deg; position angle (PA) of receding semi major axis PA=51 and systemic velocity V(sys)=3032 km/s. Large velocity dispersion are observed of upt o 120 km/s in the nuclear region, of up to 70 km/s near the eastern bright sources just beyond the edge of the stellar bar where three spiral arms seem to start and in the western bright sources at about 10 kpc. Deviations from normal circular velocities are observed from all…
We have determined the fraction of barred galaxies in the H-band for a statistically well-defined sample of 186 spirals drawn from the Ohio State University Bright Spiral Galaxy survey. We find 56% of our sample to be strongly barred at H, while another 16% is weakly barred. Only 27% of our sample is unbarred in the near-infrared. The RC3 and the Carnegie Atlas of Galaxies both classify only about 30% of our sample as strongly barred. Thus strong bars are nearly twice as prevalent in the near-infrared as in the optical. The frequency of genuine optically hidden bars is significant, but lower t…
We have obtained ground-based I, J and K band images of the spiral galaxy, Messier 74 (NGC 628). This galaxy has been shown to possess a circumnuclear ring of star formation from both near-infrared spectroscopy of CO absorption and sub-millimetre imaging of CO emission. Circumnuclear rings of star formation are believed to exist only as a result of a bar potential. In this paper we show evidence for a weak oval distortion in the centre of M74. We use the results of Combes & Gerin (1985) to suggest that this weak oval potential is responsible for the circumnuclear ring of star formation observe…
Emission-line optical spectrophotometry for 55 H II regions in the prominent southern barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is presented. Nebular diagnostic diagrams such as [N II]/[O II] and [S II]/[O II] versus [O II]/{O III] show that the H II regions of the barred galaxy have the same range of physical conditions as found in non-barred late-type galaxies. Extinction is moderately high across the disc and there is evidence for a slight trend of extinction with galactocentric distance; the logarithmic extinction at H-beta falls from about c = 1.2 in the centre to 0.6 -- 0.8 in the outer regions. The…
Using the IRAM interferometer we have mapped at high resolution (2"x1") the 12CO(1-0) emission in the nucleus of the doubled barred SABbc spiral M100. Molecular gas is distributed in a two spiral arm structure starting from the end points of the nuclear bar (r=600 pc) and a central source. The kinematics of the gas indicates the existence of a steep rotation curve (180 km/s at 100 pc) and strong streaming motions characteristic of a trailing spiral wave inside corotation. Gas flow simulations analyse the gas response to a gravitational potential derived from the K-band plate, including the two…
We present some preliminary results from new Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observations of the nearby barred spiral galaxy NGC1672. It shows dramatic nuclear and extra-nuclear star formation activity, including starburst regions located near each end of its strong bar, both of which host ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). With the new high-spatial-resolution Chandra imaging, we show for the first time that NGC1672 possesses a faint ($L(X)~10^39 erg/s), hard central X-ray source surrounded by an X-ray bright circumnuclear starburst ring that dominates the X-ray emission in the region. The centr…
NGC 6782 is an early-type barred spiral galaxy exhibiting a rich and complex morphology with multiple ring patterns. To provide a physical understanding of its structure and kinematical properties, two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations have been carried out. Numerical calculations reveal that the striking features in NGC 6782 can be reproduced provided that the gas flow is governed by the gravitational potential associated with a slowly rotating strong bar. In particular, the response of the gaseous disk to the bar potential leads to the excitation of spiral density waves at the inner Lin…
Previous optical studies found an unexpected deficit of bars at z > 0.7. To investigate the effects of bandshifting, we have studied the fraction of barred spirals in the NICMOS Deep Field North. At z > 0.7 we find at least four barred spirals, doubling the number previously detected. The number of barred galaxies is small because these (and previous) data lack adequate spatial resolution. A typical 5 kpc bar at z > 0.7 is only marginally detectable for WFPC2 at 0.8microns; the NICMOS data have even lower resolution and can only find the largest bars. The average size of the four bars seen at …
The Halpha gas kinematics of twenty-one representative barred spiral galaxies belonging to the BHaBAR sample is presented. The galaxies were observed with FaNTOmM, a Fabry-Perot integral-field spectrometer, on three different telescopes. The 3D data cubes were processed through a robust pipeline with the aim of providing the most homogeneous and accurate dataset possible useful for further analysis. The data cubes were spatially binned to a constant signal-to-noise ratio, typically around 7. Maps of the monochromatic Halpha emission line and of the velocity field were generated and the kinemat…
The Seyfert galaxy NGC 1097 has an extended neutral hydrogen disk, a companion, a prominent bar and a luminous circumnuclear starburst "ring". Magnetic fields as revealed by nonthermal radio-continuum emissions correlate well with the optical barred spiral structure on large scales, have a gross enhancement overlapping with the optical/infrared "ring", and show a trailing swirl around and within the "ring". We propose a scenario of bar-excited long-trailing fast magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) density waves at the modified inner Lindblad resonance (mILR), physically identified with the outer rim of …
We have performed smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations to study the response of the central kiloparsec region of a gaseous disk to the imposition of nonaxisymmetric bar potentials. The model galaxies are composed of the three axisymmetric components (halo, disk, and bulge) and a non-axisymmetric bar. These components are assumed to be invariant in time in the frame corotating with the bar. The potential of spherical $γ$-models of Dehnen is adopted for the bulge component whose density varies as $r^{-γ}$ near the center and $r^{-4}$ at larger radiiand hence, possesses a central den…
We present sub-arcsecond resolution ground-based near-infrared images of the central regions of a sample of twelve barred galaxies with circumnuclear star formation activity, which is organized in ring-like regions typically one kiloparsec in diameter. We also present Hubble Space Telescope near-infrared images of ten of our sample galaxies, and compare them with our ground-based data. Although our sample galaxies were selected for the presence of circumnuclear star formation activity, our broad-band near-infrared images are heterogeneous, showing a substantial amount of small-scale structure …
ESO 566-24 is an extraordinary barred galaxy, which has four regularly spaced spiral arms in blue light images. This type of four-armed spiral structure, which is rare among the spiral population, is clearly seen also in near-infrared images, and thus is present in the old stellar population. We have constructed dynamical models of ESO 566-24 in order to understand the cause of its four-armed structure. The disk gravitational potential is determined from near-infrared photometry, and the gas dynamics is modelled as inelastically colliding particles. The resulting morphology and kinematics with…
We present the results of the CO mapping observations of the barred spiral galaxy NGC3504 with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope. The distribution of the molecular gas shows offset ridges which correspond to the distribution of HII regions along the bar. The velocity perpendicular to the bar decreases abruptly at the ridge. The velocity change implies that the molecular gas changes the direction of its motion to parallel to the bar at the ridge. Since the position angle of the major axis of the bar and the line of nodes are almost the same in NGC 3504, an upper limit to the pattern speed of the bar …
We report on high-resolution interferometer observations of the 12CO(J=1-0) emission in the central 5 kpc region of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 4501. The observations were made using the Nobeyama Millimeter Array during a long-term CO line survey of Virgo spirals. The major features are: (1) a nuclear concentration with a radius of r~5'' (390 pc), which is resolved into double peaks, and (2) spiral arms which extend out from the nuclear region. The nuclear component has a mass of 1.3x10^8 Mo, which corresponds to ~3.5% of the dynamical mass, and shows a slight non-circular motion. The double peak…
We study the effects of dusty spiral arms on the photometric properties of disk galaxies using a series of 2D radiative transfer models, approximating the arms with axially symmetrical rings. We find that dusty arms, as well as dusty disks, have a significant influence on the aperture photometry and surface brightness profiles altering colors of model galaxies. We suggest that, in addition to the conventionally modeled diffuse absorbing layers or disks, the dusty arms should be taken into account in spiral galaxy extinction studies.
We present high resolution (3" - 5") observations of CO(1-0) and HCN(1-0) emission from the circumnuclear star forming ring in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 6951, a host of a type-2 Seyfert, using the Nobeyama Millimeter Array and 45 m telescope. We find that most of the HCN emission is associated with the circumnuclear ring, where vigorous star formation occurs. The HCN to CO integrated intensity ratio is also enhanced in the star forming ring; the peak value of HCN/CO ratio is 0.18, which is comparable to the ratio in the starbursts NGC 253 and M82. The formation mechanism of dense molecular …
Although nuclear rings of gas and star formation are common in barred spiral galaxies, current theories of why and how they form do not provide the level of detail needed to quantify the effect that these rings can have on the fueling of active galactic nuclei and on the evolution of their host galaxy. In this paper we use detailed modeling to show that existence of nuclear rings is directly related to the existence of the orbit family whose major axis is perpendicular to the major axis of the bar (x_2). We explore a large range of barred galaxy potentials and for each potential we use a two-d…
In this paper we present building blocks which can explain the formation and properties both of spirals and of inner and outer rings in barred galaxies. We first briefly summarise the main results of the full theoretical description we have given elsewhere, presenting them in a more physical way, aimed to an understanding without the requirement of extended knowledge of dynamical systems or of orbital structure. We introduce in this manner the notion of manifolds, which can be thought of as tubes guiding the orbits. The dynamics of these manifolds can govern the properties of spirals and of in…
Multicolour near IR photometry for a sample of 32 large barred spiral galaxies is presented. By applying ellipse fitting techniques, we identify significant isophote twists with respect to the primary bar axis in the nuclear regions of $\sim$70 \%\ of the sample. These twists are identified in galaxies as late as SBbc and are clearly distinguishable from spiral arm morphology. At most seven of the galaxies with isophote twists are inferred to possess secondary (nuclear) bars, the axis ratios of which appear to correlate with morphological type. The remainder may result from triaxial bulges, or…
Companion galaxy environment for a subset of 78 bright and nearby barred galaxies from the Shapley Ames Catalog is presented. Among spiral barred galaxies there are Seyfert galaxies, galaxies with circumnuclear structures, galaxies not associated with any large scale galaxy cloud structure, galaxies with peculiar disk morphology (crooked arms) and galaxies with normal disk morphology; the list includes all Hubble types. The companion galaxy list includes number of companion galaxies within 20 diameters (D25), their Hubble type and projected separation distance. Additionally, companion environm…
We report the discovery of two symmetric spiral arms in the near-infrared (NIR) images of the starburst galaxy M82. The spiral arms are recovered when an axi-symmetric exponential disk is subtracted from the NIR images. The arms emerge from the ends of the NIR bar and can be traced up to three disk scalelengths. The winding of the arms is consistent with an m=2 logarithmic spiral mode of pitch angle 14 degrees. The arms are bluer than the disk in spite of their detection on the NIR images. If the northern side of the galaxy is nearer to us, as is normally assumed, the observed sense of rotatio…
We present a comparison of barstrength Qb and circumnuclear dust morphology for 75 galaxies in order to investigate how bars affect the centers of galaxies. We trace the circumnuclear dust morphology and amount of dust structure with structure maps generated from visible-wavelength HST data, finding that tightly wound nuclear dust spirals are primarily found in weakly barred galaxies. While strongly barred galaxies sometimes exhibit grand design structure within the central 10 percent of D25, this structure rarely extends to within ~10 pc of the galaxy nucleus. In some galaxies, these spiral a…
I discuss new observations of circumnuclear regions in barred galaxies, both of their kinematics and their near-infrared (NIR) morphology. New kinematic observations of M100 confirm that (1) the inner bar-like feature detected before in this galaxy is in fact a continuation of the large-scale stellar bar; and (2) the spiral arm-like sites of star formation in the circumnuclear zone are manifestations of density wave spiral structure in the core of this galaxy. From a NIR study of similar regions in other barred galaxies, I find that in many of these regions, sites of star formation are visible…
We present an analysis of the rotation measures (RMs) of polarized extragalactic point sources in the Southern Galactic Plane Survey. This work demonstrates that the statistics of fluctuations in RM differ for the spiral arms and the interarm regions. Structure functions of RM are flat in the spiral arms, while they increase in the interarms. This indicates that there are no correlated RM fluctuations in the magneto-ionized interstellar medium in the spiral arms on scales larger than ~ 0.5 deg, corresponding to ~ 17 pc in the nearest spiral arm probed. The non-zero slopes in interarm regions i…
Detailed neutral hydrogen observations have been obtained of the large barred spiral galaxy NGC 3992 and its three small companion galaxies, UGC 6923, UGC 6940, and UGC 6969. For the main galaxy, the HI distribution is regular with a low level radial extension outside the stellar disc. However, at exactly the region of the bar, there is a pronounced central HI hole in the gas distribution. Likely gas has been transported inwards by the bar and because of the emptyness of the hole no large accretion events can have happened in recent galactic times. The gas kinematics is very regular and it is …
This paper is primarily a study of the effect of a bar on the neutral hydrogen (HI) content of starburst and Seyfert galaxies. We also make comparisons with a sample of ``normal'' galaxies and investigate how well starburst and Seyfert galaxies follow the fundamental scaling Tully-Fisher (TF) relation defined for normal galaxies. 111 Markarian (Mrk) IRAS galaxies were observed at the Nancay radiotelescope. These measurements are complemented by data from the literature to form a sample of 105 unbarred and 113 barred Mrk IRAS galaxies. Barred galaxies have lower total and bias-corrected HI mass…
From our catalog of Milky Way molecular clouds, created using a temperature thresholding algorithm on the Bell Laboratories 13CO Survey, we have extracted two subsets:(1) Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs), clouds that are definitely larger than 10^5 solar masses, even if they are at their `near distance', and (2) clouds that are definitely smaller than 10^5 solar masses, even if they are at their `far distance'. The positions and velocities of these clouds are compared to the loci of spiral arms in (l, v) space. The velocity separation of each cloud from the nearest spiral arm is introduced as a `…
Optical red spectra of a set of 18 bright barred spiral galaxies are presented. The study is aimed at determining the local kinematics, and the physical conditions of ionized gas in the compact nucleus (inside a diameter of 5") and in the circumnuclear regions (inside a diameter of 20"). Only 8 galaxies showed bright emission from their east and west side of the nucleus. The spectrum of each region was analized separately. In other 10 galaxies the line emission was so weak that we were only able to obtain an average spectrum of the central emission. No emission was detected in the remaining 8 …
In order to establish an objective framework for studying galaxy morphology, we have developed a quantitative two-parameter description of galactic structure that maps closely on to Hubble's original tuning fork. Any galaxy can be placed in this "Hubble space", where the x-coordinate measures position along the early-to-late sequence, while the y-coordinate measures in a quantitative way the degree to which the galaxy is barred. The parameters defining Hubble space are sufficiently robust to allow the formation of Hubble's tuning fork to be mapped out to high redshifts. In the present paper, w…
To quantify the effect that bar driven mass inflow can have on the evolution of a galaxy requires an understanding of the dynamics of the inflowing gas. In this paper we study the kinematics of the dense molecular gas in a set of seven barred spiral galaxies to determine which dynamical effects dominate. The kinematics are derived from observations of the CO J=(1-0) line made with the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association (BIMA) millimeter array. We compare the observed kinematics to those predicted by ideal gas hydrodynamic and ballistic cloud-based models of gas flow in a barred potential. …
We investigated ram-pressure effects by an intracluster wind on an inner disk of spiral galaxies by a hydrodynamical simulation. Even if the wind is mild and not strong enough to strip the gas disk, the ram pressure disturbs orbits of the inter-arm gas significantly. This results in asymmetric dense molecular arms in the inner few kpc region of a galaxy. This mechanism would explain the asymmetric CO gas distributions in the central regions often observed in Virgo spirals.
Statistical parameters of the ISM driven by thermal energy injections from supernova explosions have been obtained from 3D, nonlinear, magnetohydrodynamic, shearing-box simulations for spiral arm and interarm regions. The density scale height obtained for the interarm regions is 50% larger than within the spiral arms because of the higher gas temperature. The filling factor of the hot gas is also significantly larger between the arms and depends sensitively on magnetic field strength.
By image processing and color excess analyses of B, V, R, and I-band CCD images of the central region of M31 taken with the Kiso 105-cm Schmidt telescope, we found a bar of 200 pc length. We also found a more extended ``face-on" spiral feature of dark clouds, which appear t o be connected to this bar and is probably an out-of-plane structure. The \co-line emission was detected from the dark clouds using the Nobeyama 45m telescope, and the virial mass of individual clouds was estimated to be about 10E6 solar masses. The CO intensity-to-virial mass ratio is anomalously small, and so is the color…
The oxygen (O/H) and N/O abundance ratios along the bar of 16 barred spiral starburst galaxies are determined using long-slit spectroscopy. The abundance gradients and the spatial distribution of the ionized gas along the bar are used to understand the role of bars in starburst galaxies. The oxygen abundance gradients are steeper than in normal barred galaxies, while the intersects are low. This excludes the possibility that these are chemically evolved galaxies rejuvenated by the effect of a bar. The nitrogen-to-oxygen abundance gradients are flatter than the oxygen ones. But N/O intersects a…
An improved linear stability theory of small-amplitude oscillations of a self-gravitating, infinitesimally thin gaseous disk of spiral galaxies has been developed. It was shown that in the differentially rotating disks for nonaxisymmetric perturbations Toomre's modified hydrodynamical simulations to test the validity of the modified local criterion.
Leading spiral arms are a rare phenomenon. We present here one of the very few convincing candidates of spiral arms opening counter-intuitively in the same direction as the galaxy disk is rotating. This detection in a luminous IR galaxy (LIRG) IRAS 18293-3134 is based on near infrared (NIR) adaptive optics imaging with the Very Large Telescope and long-slit NIR spectroscopy with the Anglo-Australian Telescope. We discuss the orientation of the galaxy based on imaging and derive rotation curves from both emission and absorption features in the spectrum. The galaxy is strongly star-forming and h…
In a previous paper (Voglis et al. 2006a, paper I) we demonstrated that, in a rotating galaxy with a strong bar, the unstable asymptotic manifolds of the short period family of unstable periodic orbits around the Lagrangian points L$_1$ or L$_2$ create correlations among the apocentric positions of many chaotic orbits, thus supporting a {\it spiral} structure beyond the bar. In the present paper we present evidence that the unstable manifolds of {\it all} the families of unstable periodic orbits near and beyond corotation contribute to the same phenomenon. Our results refer to a N-Body simulat…
We have measured the bar lengths and widths of 125 barred galaxies observed with CCDs. The dependence of bar strength (identified with bar axis ratio) on morphological type, nuclear activity, central and mid-bar surface brightness is investigated. The properties of the bars are best explained if the sample is divided into early- (< SBbc) and late-type galaxies, and into active (starburst, Seyfert or LINER) and normal galaxies. We find that galaxies with very long bars are mostly active and that normal late-type galaxies have a distinct behavior from the three other groups of galaxies. We confi…
We have searched for dense molecular gas in three barred spiral galaxies with young starbursts, NGC 3049, 5430 and 6764, which are known Wolf-Rayet galaxies. We detected HCN in the latter two, and CS was marginally detected in NGC 6764. The dense molecular gas contents of the three galaxies are compared to those of other galaxies and to other indicators of star formation. The HCN luminosities (relative to the CO and far infrared ones) in these galaxies with very young starbursts are consistent with those observed in galaxies with older starbursts and in normal galaxies, and so are our upper li…
