Bars strongly influence the distribution of gas and stars within the central regions of their host galaxies. This is particularly pronounced in the star formation desert (SFD) which is defined as two symmetrical regions either side of the bar that show a deficit in young stars. Previous studies proposed that, if star formation is truncated because of the influence of the bar, then the age distribution of stars within the SFD could be used to determine the epoch of bar formation. To test this, we study the properties of SFDs in 6 galaxies from zoom-in cosmological re-simulations. Age maps reveal old regions on both sides of the bars, with a lack of stars younger than 10 Myr, confirming the SFD phenomenon. Local star formation is truncated in the SFDs because after the bar forms, gas in these regions is removed on 1 Gyr timescales. However, the overall age distribution of stars in the SFD does not show a sharp truncation after bar formation but rather a gradual downturn in comparison to that of the bar. This more subtle signature may still give information on bar formation epochs in observed galaxies, but the interpretation will be more difficult than originally hoped. The gradual drop in the SFD age distribution, instead of a truncation, is due to radial migration of stars born in the disk. The SFD is thus one of the only regions where an uncontaminated sample of stars only affected by radial migration can be studied.
The onset of stellar bars at Cosmic Noon. Bar-driven quenching and AGN co-evolution in a mature disc galaxy
Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA（天体生物学中心）；Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de La Serena（拉塞雷纳大学天文系）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利群岛天体物理学研究所）；Departamento de Astrofísica de la Universidad de La Laguna（拉古纳大学天体物理学系）；Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad（马什哈德菲尔道西大学理学院物理系）；INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova（帕多瓦天文台）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “G. Galilei”, Università di Padova（帕多瓦大学伽利略物理与天文学系）
Instituto de Informática, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul（南里奥格兰德联邦大学信息学研究所）；Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul（南里奥格兰德联邦大学物理研究所）；Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire（赫特福德大学天体物理研究中心）；Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill（北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校物理与天文系）
A steep mass transition for bar-driven ISM structuring revealed by PHANGS-JWST
European Southern Observatory（欧洲南方天文台）；Univ Lyon, Univ Lyon1, ENS de Lyon, CNRS, Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon UMR5574（里昂大学、里昂第一大学、巴黎高等师范学校里昂分校、法国国家科学研究中心、里昂天体物理研究中心）；Whitman College（惠特曼学院）；Algoma University（阿尔戈马大学）；Ohio State University（俄亥俄州立大学）；Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics（宇宙学与高能物理中心）；California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）；Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie（马克斯·普朗克天文学研究所）；The University of Manchester（曼彻斯特大学）；University of California, San Diego（加利福尼亚大学圣地亚哥分校）
