The lifetime of galactic bars: central mass concentrations and gravity torques

Abstract Bars in gas-rich spiral galaxies are short-lived. They drive gas inflows through their gravity torques, and at the same time self-regulate their strength. Their robustness has been subject of debate, as it was thought that only the resulting central mass concentrations (CMCs) were weakening bars, and only relatively rare massive CMCs were able to completely destroy them. Through numerical simulations including gas dynamics, we find that with the gas parameters of normal spiral galaxies, the CMC is not sufficient to fully dissolve the bar. But another overlooked mechanism, the transfer of angular momentum from the infalling gas to the stellar bar, can also strongly weaken the bar. In addition, we show that gravity torques are correctly reproduced in simulations, and conclude that bars are transient features, with lifetime of 1–2 Gyr in typical Sb-Sc galaxies, because of the combined effects of CMCs and gravity torques, while most existing works had focussed on the CMC effects alone.