A first meta-analysis of barred galaxies with direct bar pattern speed measurements

We investigate the relations between the properties of bars and their host galaxies in a sample of 104 nearby barred galaxies, spanning a wide range of morphological types and luminosities. The sample includes all the galaxies with direct measurement of their bar pattern speed based on long-slit or integral-field stellar spectroscopy using the Tremaine-Weinberg method. For each galaxy, we collected the radius, strength, pattern speed, corotation radius, and rotation rate for the bar and we considered the Hubble type and absolute SDSS $r$-band magnitude of the host galaxy. We also derived the bulge-to-total luminosity ratio for a subsample of 34 galaxies with an available photometric decomposition. We limited our analysis to the galaxies with a relatively small relative error on the bar pattern speed ($<50$ per cent) and not hosting an ultrafast bar. The final sample consists of 77 objects, with 34 SB0-SBa and 43 SBab-SBc galaxies. We confirmed earlier observational findings that longer bars rotate with lower bar pattern speeds, shorter bars are weaker, fast bars rotate with higher bar pattern speeds and have smaller corotation radii, and disc-dominated galaxies host weaker bars. In addition, we found that stronger bars rotate with lower bar pattern speeds as predicted for the interchange of angular momentum during bar evolution depending on galaxy properties. Moreover, we report that brighter galaxies host longer bars, which rotate with lower bar pattern speeds and have larger corotation radii. This result, together with the fact that we observe stronger bars in bulge-dominated galaxies, is in agreement with a scenario of downsizing in bar formation and co-evolution of bars and bulges, if more massive galaxies formed earlier and had sufficient time to slow down, grow in length, and push corotation outwards.