Formation of nuclear rings of barred galaxies and star formation therein

摘要

Barred galaxies contain substructures such as a pair of dust lanes and nuclear rings, with the latter being sites of intense star formation. We study the substructure formation as well as star formation in nuclear rings using numerical simulations. We find that nuclear rings form not by the Lindblad resonances, as previously thought, but by the centrifugal barrier that inflowing gas along dust lanes cannot overcome. This predicts a smaller ring in a more strongly barred galaxy, consistent with observations. Star formation rate (SFR) in a nuclear ring is determined primarily by the mass inflow rate to the ring. In our models, the SFR typically shows a short strong burst associated with the rapid gas infall and stays very small for the rest of the evolution. When the SFR is low, ages of young star clusters exhibit an azimuthal gradient along the ring since star formation takes place mostly near the contact points between the dust lanes and the nuclear ring. When the SFR is large, on the other hand, star formation is widely distributed throughout the whole length of the ring, with no apparent age gradient of star clusters. Since observed ring star formation appears long-lived with episodic bursts, our results suggest that the bar region should be replenished continually with fresh gas from outside.