Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: ABSTRACT The Milky Way is known to contain a stellar bar, as are a significant fraction of disc galaxies across the universe. Our understanding of bar evolution, both theoretically and through analysis of simulations indicates that bars both grow in amplitude and slow down over time through interaction and angular momentum exchange with the galaxy’s dark matter halo. Understanding the physical mechanisms underlying this coupling requires modelling of the structural deformations to the potential that are mutually induced between components. In this work, we use basis function expansion (BFE) in combination with multichannel singular spectral analysis (mSSA) as a non-parametric analysis tool to illustrate the coupling between the bar and the dark halo in a single high-resolution isolated barred disc galaxy simulation. We demonstrate the power of mSSA to extract and quantify explicitly coupled dynamical modes, determining growth rates, pattern speeds and phase lags for different stages of evolution of the stellar bar and the dark matter response. BFE and mSSA together grant us the ability to explore the importance and physical mechanisms of bar-halo coupling, and other dynamically coupled structures across a wide range of dynamical environments.
Institutions: University of Surrey, Royal Observatory, University of Edinburgh, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Columbia University, Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya, Institut de Ciències del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, University of Arizona, Flatiron Institute, University of Washington
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,046
OpenAlex ID: W4416794413