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K. Sheth (California Institute of Technology), E. Schinnerer (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie), B. Mobasher (Space Telescope Science Institute), N.Z. Scoville, K. Menendez-Delmestre (California Institute of Technology), A. Gil de Paz (Carnegie Observatories), J. Koda, P. Capak (California Institute of Technology), COSMOS Team
Challenging nearly a decade of observational results, several recent studies have suggested that the fraction of bars does not decline with redshift. The first of these studies (Sheth et al. 2003) pointed out that a measurement of the bar fraction at any epoch must take into account the bar length. With the improved pixel size of the ACS, surveys such as COSMOS, GOODS and GEMS have begun to adequately resolve bars. Our preliminary analysis with the COSMOS data, consistent with other recent studies (Elmegreen et al. 2004, Jogee et al. 2004), suggests that the bar fraction is constant with redshift. This is difficult to reconcile with earlier studies which concluded that bars have undergone two or more epochs of destruction and reformation. To better understand these different evolutionary scenarios we present preliminary results from an analysis of the 2-square degree COSMOS ACS field. With this unique data we compare the evolution of the bar properties (length, ellipticity) and the properties of the host galaxies to a well-studied local sample from 2MASS (Menendez-Delmestre et al. 2004) and GALEX (Gil de Paz et al. 2004).
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: kartik@astro.caltech.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.