Cosmic Evolution of Barred Galaxies up to z ∼ 0.84

Abstract

Abstract We explore the cosmic evolution of the bar length, strength, and light deficit around the bar for 379 barred galaxies at 0.2 < z ≤ 0.835 using F814W images from the COSMOS survey. Our sample covers galaxies with stellar masses 10.0 ≤ log ( M * / M ⊙ ) ≤ 11.4 and various Hubble types. The bar length is strongly related to the galaxy mass, the disk scale length (h), R 50, and R 90, where the last two are the radii containing 50% and 90% of total stellar mass, respectively. Bar length remains almost constant, suggesting little or no evolution in bar length over the last 7 Gyr. The normalized bar lengths (R bar/h, R bar/R 50, and R bar/R 90) do not show any clear cosmic evolution. Also, the bar strength (A 2 and Q b ) and the light deficit around the bar reveal little or no cosmic evolution. The constancy of the normalized bar lengths over cosmic time implies that the evolution of bars and of disks is strongly linked over all times. We discuss our results in the framework of predictions from numerical simulations. We conclude there is no strong disagreement between our results and up-to-date simulations.