2025ApJ...983...94A -
Astrophys. J., 983, 94 (2025/April-3)
Are Purely Gaseous Bars in Dwarf Irregulars a Myth?
ANAGHA A.G. and BANERJEE A.
Abstract (from CDS):
About two-thirds of galactic disks exhibit a central ellipsoidal stellar component called the bar, with or without a gaseous counterpart. However, there are a few dwarf galaxies with purely gaseous bars: NGC 3741, NGC 2915, and DDO 168. This is a puzzle, as gas is a collisional medium, and a gaseous bar is expected to be ripped off by shock waves. We study the formation of gaseous bars in these galaxies by constructing dynamical models constrained by stellar photometry and H I observations already available. We first analytically study the dynamical stability of the galactic disks against global m = 2 perturbations. Our results indicate that the stellar and gas disks are moderately unstable against these bar modes. Using N-body + hydrodynamical simulations employing RAMSES, we next find that a purely gaseous bar is formed in an oblate dark matter halo of vertical-to-planar axis ratio c/a = 0.6-0.8, with a relatively high-spin parameter Λ = 0.04-0.07, which survives for more than 10 dynamical times. Further, the low values of our calculated Mach numbers M = 2-6 of the gaseous medium comply with the survival of the gaseous bars, unaffected by shock waves. Interestingly, our simulations show the formation of a tiny stellar bar in each case. However, the temporal evolution of the change in angular momentum Lz of the different disk components indicates the exchange of Lz between the gas disk and the dark matter halo only; the Lz of the stellar disk remained unchanged, indicating a weak stellar bar.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Journal keyword(s):
Galaxy bars - Galaxy dark matter halos - Galaxy dynamics - Galaxy evolution - Galaxy formation - Galaxy kinematics
Simbad objects:
5
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