Bar likelihood in local galaxies: the joint role of stellar mass, morphology and environment
4 affiliations
- 1Dirección Nacional de Ciencias Espaciales, Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá , Llano Marín, Vía Panamericana, Provincia de Coclé ,
- 2Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México , Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro # 8701, Ex-Hda. San José de la Huerta, Morelia, Michoacán, C.P. 58089 ,
- 3Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María Departamento de Física, , Avenida España 1680, Valparaíso ,
- 4Millennium Nucleus for Galaxies (MINGAL)
Abstract
We investigate how the likelihood of hosting a stellar bar depends on both intrinsic galaxy properties and environment, using a volume-limited sample of central and satellite galaxies from the NASA–Sloan Atlas, spanning isolated systems, low- and high-richness groups, and massive haloes, complemented with halo-based environmental information and probabilistic morphology. Using probabilistic bar identification, we quantify the bar likelihood as a function of stellar mass, colour, morphology, halo mass, and cluster-centric distance. We find that stellar mass and morphology are the galaxy properties most associated with the bar likelihood. At fixed morphology, the probability of hosting a bar increases with stellar mass, particularly for late-type galaxies. At the same time, morphology strongly modulates the overall incidence of bars, with early-type galaxies displaying systematically lower probabilities than late-type systems across the stellar mass range. Environmental trends are observed, including halo mass and cluster-centric distance, but these trends largely reflect the morphological composition of the galaxy population. In particular, the decrease in bar likelihood towards the centres of massive haloes reflects the increasing fraction of early-type galaxies, consistent with the morphology–density relation, rather than a direct environmental suppression of bars. Our residual analysis finds no statistically significant residual dependence on halo mass or normalized cluster-centric distance after accounting for stellar mass and morphology, within the sensitivity of this sample. Overall, our results show that stellar mass and morphology are the main factors associated with bar likelihood, while environmental trends largely reflect morphological composition.
Related
- Halo mass, star formation, and morphology in galaxies: A morphology-dependent connection between halo environment and star formation activity
- The assembly of bulge-dominated galaxies: two evolutionary channels traced through morphology, kinematics, and environment with a hybrid classification pipeline
- Stellar streams around dwarf galaxies are observationally rare in the local Universe
- Radial Stellar Age Gradients in 42 Local Volume Dwarf Galaxies
- The NIVARIA-Local Group simulations: Unveiling the origin of rotation curve diversity in dwarf galaxies and its connection to galaxy morphology
BibTeX
@article{chacon2026likelihood,
title = {{Bar likelihood in local galaxies: the joint role of stellar mass, morphology and environment}},
author = {Manuel Alejandro Chacón and Bernardo Cervantes Sodi and Yara Jaffé},
journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1093/mnras/stag2085},
url = {https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag2085/9005966},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Bar likelihood in local galaxies: the joint role of stellar mass, morphology and environment
AU - Manuel Alejandro Chacón
AU - Bernardo Cervantes Sodi
AU - Yara Jaffé
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/31
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stag2085
UR - https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag2085/9005966
AB - We investigate how the likelihood of hosting a stellar bar depends on both intrinsic galaxy properties and environment, using a volume-limited sample of central and satellite galaxies from the NASA–Sloan Atlas, spanning isolated systems, low- and high-richness groups, and massive haloes, complemented with halo-based environmental information and probabilistic morphology. Using probabilistic bar identification, we quantify the bar likelihood as a function of stellar mass, colour, morphology, halo mass, and cluster-centric distance. We find that stellar mass and morphology are the galaxy properties most associated with the bar likelihood. At fixed morphology, the probability of hosting a bar increases with stellar mass, particularly for late-type galaxies. At the same time, morphology strongly modulates the overall incidence of bars, with early-type galaxies displaying systematically lower probabilities than late-type systems across the stellar mass range. Environmental trends are observed, including halo mass and cluster-centric distance, but these trends largely reflect the morphological composition of the galaxy population. In particular, the decrease in bar likelihood towards the centres of massive haloes reflects the increasing fraction of early-type galaxies, consistent with the morphology–density relation, rather than a direct environmental suppression of bars. Our residual analysis finds no statistically significant residual dependence on halo mass or normalized cluster-centric distance after accounting for stellar mass and morphology, within the sensitivity of this sample. Overall, our results show that stellar mass and morphology are the main factors associated with bar likelihood, while environmental trends largely reflect morphological composition.
SN - 0035-8711
SN - 1365-2966
ER -