Bibcode
Erwin, Peter
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.415, p.941-957 (2004)
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3
2004
Journal
Citations
188
Refereed citations
168
Description
I present a catalog of 67 barred galaxies which contain distinct,
elliptical stellar structures inside their bars. Fifty of these are
double-barred galaxies: a small-scale, inner or secondary bar is
embedded within a large-scale, outer or primary bar. I provide
homogenized measurements of the sizes, ellipticities, and orientations
of both inner and outer bars, along with global parameters for the
galaxies. The other 17 are classified as inner-disk galaxies, where a
large-scale bar harbors an inner elliptical structure which is aligned
with the galaxy's outer disk. Four of the double-barred galaxies also
possess inner disks, located in between the inner and outer bars. While
the inner-disk classification is ad-hoc - and undoubtedly includes some
inner bars with chance alignments (five such probable cases are
identified) - there is good evidence that inner disks form a
statistically distinct population, and that at least some are indeed
disks rather than bars. In addition, I list 36 galaxies which may be
double-barred, but for which current observations are ambiguous or
incomplete, and another 23 galaxies which have been previously suggested
as potentially being double-barred, but which are probably not. False
double-bar identifications are usually due to features such as nuclear
rings and spirals being misclassified as bars; I provide some
illustrated examples of how this can happen.
A detailed statistical analysis of the general population of double-bar
and inner-disk galaxies, as represented by this catalog, will be
presented in a companion paper.
Tables
ef{tab:measured} and
ef{tab:deproj} are only available in
electronic form at http://www.edpsciences.org