Details on the event

01/09/2018

Joint Astrophysical Colloquium

Peeking behind the bar's cloak of invisibility

Eric Emsellem (ESO)

Thursday 23/10/2025 @ 11:30, Sala Antonio Sollima (IV piano Battiferro)

Bars have been key drivers of secular evolution, gas redistribution, and star formation in disc galaxies for at least 10 Gyr. Despite extensive studies through observations, models, and simulations, we still lack a clear understanding of how these tumbling structures shape galaxy assembly and evolution. In this seminar, I will discuss the critical factors needed to establish a coherent framework for bar formation and evolution. Using a suite of hydrodynamical simulations developed in the context of the PHANGS survey, I will explore the onset of bars and their influence on the structuring of the interstellar medium (ISM) and stellar populations. I will highlight how bar-driven inflows build central mass concentrations, how star formation can be either enhanced or suppressed depending on location within the disc, and how stellar mass–dependent phase transitions emerge from the balance between feedback and gravity. By combining simulations with observations from ALMA, JWST, and HST, I will present a holistic view of bar-driven processes and their far-reaching impact on disc evolution, an influence often under-represented in cosmological studies.