Statistical Study of the Relationship Between Bar and the Overall Star Formation Properties of Galaxies postprint

Abstract: The bar structure of disk galaxies, their environment, and overall star formation properties are known to be intricately linked. By utilizing data from the Galaxy Zoo DECaLS program, we have assembled the largest sample of strong bar, weak bar, and no bar galaxies with matching stellar mass distributions. We analyzed the specific star formation rates (sSFR) of these galaxies after controlling for environmental effects by matching the halo mass and phase space diagram of the dark matter halo in which the galaxy resides. Our findings suggest that the percentage of quenched galaxies in the barred galaxy sample is consistently higher than that in non-bar galaxies, with a more pronounced effect for strong bar galaxies. However, for galaxies that are still on the star formation main sequence, there is no significant difference in their sSFR distribution. These results suggest that the presence of a bar in a galaxy may rapidly transition some galaxies from being star-forming to quenched in a short period of time.