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Despite the evidence that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) co-evolve with their host galaxy, and that most of the growth of these SMBHs occurs via merger-free processes, the underlying mechanisms which drive this secular co-evolution are poorly understood. We investigate the role that both strong and weak large-scale galactic bars play in mediating this relationship. Using 48 871 disc galaxies in a volume-limited sample from Galaxy Zoo DESI, we analyse the active galactic nucleus (AGN) fraction in strongly barred, weakly barred, and unbarred galaxies up to |$z = 0.1$| over a range of stellar masses and colours. After controlling for stellar mass and colour, we find that the optically selected AGN fraction is |$31.6 \pm 0.9$| per cent in strongly barred galaxies, |$23.3 \pm 0.8$| per cent in weakly barred galaxies, and |$14.2 \pm 0.6$| per cent in unbarred disc galaxies. These are highly statistically robust results, strengthening the tantalizing results in earlier works. Strongly barred galaxies have a higher fraction of AGNs than weakly barred galaxies, which in turn have a higher fraction than unbarred galaxies. Thus, while bars are not required in order to grow an SMBH in a disc galaxy, large-scale galactic bars appear to facilitate AGN fuelling, and the presence of a strong bar makes a disc galaxy more than twice as likely to host an AGN than an unbarred galaxy at all galaxy stellar masses and colours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of large-scale bars in the fuelling of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is still debated, even as evidence mounts that black hole growth in the absence of galaxy mergers cumulatively dominates and may substantially influence disc (i.e. merger-free) galaxy evolution. We investigate whether large-scale galactic bars are a good candidate for merger-free AGN fuelling. Specifically, we combine slit spectroscopy and Hubble Space Telescope imagery to characterize star formation rates (SFRs) and stellar masses of the unambiguously disc-dominated host galaxies of a sample of luminous, Type-1 AGN with 0.02 < z < 0.24. After carefully correcting for AGN signal, we find no clear difference in SFRs between AGN hosts and a stellar mass-matched sample of galaxies lacking an AGN (0.013 < z < 0.19), although this could be due to small sample size (n AGN = 34). We correct for SFR and stellar mass to minimize selection biases, and compare the bar fraction in the two samples. We find that AGNs are marginally (∼1.7σ) more likely to host a bar than inactive galaxies, with AGN hosts having a bar fraction, |$f_{\mathrm{bar}}=0.59^{+0.08}_{-0.09}$| and inactive galaxies having a bar fraction, |$f_{\mathrm{bar}}=0.44^{+0.08}_{-0.09}$|⁠. However, we find no further differences between SFR- and mass-matched AGNs and inactive samples. While bars could potentially trigger AGN activity, they appear to have no further, unique effect on a galaxy's stellar mass or SFR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the bar pattern speeds and corotation radii of 225 barred galaxies, using integral field unit data from MaNGA and the Tremaine–Weinberg method. Our sample, which is divided between strongly and weakly barred galaxies identified via Galaxy Zoo, is the largest that this method has been applied to. We find lower pattern speeds for strongly barred galaxies than for weakly barred galaxies. As simulations show that the pattern speed decreases as the bar exchanges angular momentum with its host, these results suggest that strong bars are more evolved than weak bars. Interestingly, the corotation radius is not different between weakly and strongly barred galaxies, despite being proportional to bar length. We also find that the corotation radius is significantly different between quenching and star-forming galaxies. Additionally, we find that strongly barred galaxies have significantly lower values for |$\mathcal {R}$|⁠ , the ratio between the corotation radius and the bar radius, than weakly barred galaxies, despite a big overlap in both distributions. This ratio classifies bars into ultrafast bars (⁠|$\mathcal {R} \lt $| 1.0; 11 per cent of our sample), fast bars (1.0 |$\lt \mathcal {R} \lt $| 1.4; 27 per cent), and slow bars (⁠|$\mathcal {R} \gt $| 1.4; 62 per cent). Simulations show that |$\mathcal {R}$| is correlated with the bar formation mechanism, so our results suggest that strong bars are more likely to be formed by different mechanisms than weak bars. Finally, we find a lower fraction of ultrafast bars than most other studies, which decreases the recently claimed tension with Lambda cold dark matter. However, the median value of |$\mathcal {R}$| is still lower than what is predicted by simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The galaxy population is strongly bimodal in both colour and morphology, and the two measures correlate strongly, with most blue galaxies being late-types (spirals) and most early-types, typically ellipticals, being red. This observation has led to the use of colour as a convenient selection criterion to make samples that are then labelled by morphology. Such use of colour as a proxy for morphology results in necessarily impure and incomplete samples. In this paper, we make use of the morphological labels produced by Galaxy Zoo to measure how incomplete and impure such samples are, considering optical (ugriz), near-ultraviolet (NUV), and near-infrared (NIR; JHK) bands. The best single colour optical selection is found using a threshold of g − r  = 0.742, but this still results in a sample where only 56 per cent of red galaxies are smooth and 56 per cent of smooth galaxies are red. Use of the NUV gives some improvement over purely optical bands, particularly for late-types, but still results in low purity/completeness for early-types. No significant improvement is found by adding NIR bands. With any two bands, including NUV, a sample of early-types with greater than two-thirds purity cannot be constructed. Advances in quantitative galaxy morphologies have made colour–morphology proxy selections largely unnecessary going forward; where such assumptions are still required, we recommend studies carefully consider the implications of sample incompleteness/impurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use Bayesian convolutional neural networks and a novel generative model of Galaxy Zoo volunteer responses to infer posteriors for the visual morphology of galaxies. Bayesian CNN can learn from galaxy images with uncertain labels and then, for previously unlabelled galaxies, predict the probability of each possible label. Our posteriors are well-calibrated (e.g. for predicting bars, we achieve coverage errors of 11.8 per cent within a vote fraction deviation of 0.2) and hence are reliable for practical use. Further, using our posteriors, we apply the active learning strategy BALD to request volunteer responses for the subset of galaxies which, if labelled, would be most informative for training our network. We show that training our Bayesian CNNs using active learning requires up to 35–60 per cent fewer labelled galaxies, depending on the morphological feature being classified. By combining human and machine intelligence, Galaxy zoo will be able to classify surveys of any conceivable scale on a time-scale of weeks, providing massive and detailed morphology catalogues to support research into galaxy evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bars in galaxies are thought to stimulate both inflow of material and radial mixing along them. Observational evidence for this mixing has been inconclusive so far, however, limiting the evaluation of the impact of bars on galaxy evolution. We now use results from the MaNGA integral field spectroscopic survey to characterize radial stellar age and metallicity gradients along the bar and outside the bar in 128 strongly barred galaxies. We find that age and metallicity gradients are flatter in the barred regions of almost all barred galaxies when compared to corresponding disc regions at the same radii. Our results re-emphasize the key fact that by azimuthally averaging integral field spectroscopic data one loses important information from non-axisymmetric galaxy components such as bars and spiral arms. We interpret our results as observational evidence that bars are radially mixing material in galaxies of all stellar masses, and for all bar morphologies and evolutionary stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use classifications provided by citizen scientists though Galaxy Zoo to investigate the correlation between bulge size and arm winding in spiral galaxies. Whilst the traditional spiral sequence is based on a combination of both measures, and is supposed to favour arm winding where disagreement exists, we demonstrate that, in modern usage, the spiral classifications Sa–Sd are predominantly based on bulge size, with no reference to spiral arms. Furthermore, in a volume limited sample of galaxies with both automated and visual measures of bulge prominence and spiral arm tightness, there is at best a weak correlation between the two. Galaxies with small bulges have a wide range of arm winding, while those with larger bulges favour tighter arms. This observation, interpreted as revealing a variable winding speed as a function of bulge size, may be providing evidence that the majority of spiral arms are not static density waves, but rather wind-up over time. This suggests the 'winding problem' could be solved by the constant reforming of spiral arms, rather than needing a static density wave. We further observe that galaxies exhibiting strong bars tend to have more loosely wound arms at a given bulge size than unbarred spirals. This observations suggests that the presence of a bar may slow the winding speed of spirals, and may also drive other processes (such as density waves) that generate spiral arms. It is remarkable that after over 170 years of observations of spiral arms in galaxies our understanding of them remains incomplete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By applying spectroscopic decomposition methods to a sample of MaNGA early-type galaxies, we separate out spatially and kinematically distinct stellar populations, allowing us to explore the similarities and differences between galaxy bulges and discs, and how they affect the global properties of the galaxy. We find that the components have interesting variations in their stellar populations, and display different kinematics. Bulges tend to be consistently more metal rich than their disc counterparts, and while the ages of both components are comparable, there is an interesting tail of younger, more metal-poor discs. Bulges and discs follow their own distinct kinematic relationships, both on the plane of the stellar spin parameter, λ R , and ellipticity, ϵ, and in the relation between stellar mass, M *, and specific angular momentum, j *, with the location of the galaxy as a whole on these planes being determined by how much bulge and disc it contains. As a check of the physical significance of the kinematic decompositions, we also dynamically model the individual galaxy components within the global potential of the galaxy. The resulting components exhibit kinematic parameters consistent with those from the spectroscopic decomposition, and though the dynamical modelling suffers from some degeneracies, the bulges and discs display systematically different intrinsic dynamical properties. This work demonstrates the value in considering the individual components of galaxies rather than treating them as a single entity, which neglects information that may be crucial in understanding where, when, and how galaxies evolve into the systems we see today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the discovery that the majority of low-redshift galaxies exhibit some level of spiral structure, a number of theories have been proposed as to why these patterns exist. A popular explanation is a process known as swing amplification, yet there is no observational evidence to prove that such a mechanism is at play. By using a number of measured properties of galaxies, and scaling relations where there are no direct measurements, we model samples of SDSS and S4G spiral galaxies in terms of their relative halo, bulge, and disc mass and size. Using these models, we test predictions of swing amplification theory with respect to directly measured spiral arm numbers from Galaxy Zoo 2. We find that neither a universal cored nor cuspy inner dark matter profile can correctly predict observed numbers of arms in galaxies. However, by invoking a halo contraction/expansion model, a clear bimodality in the spiral galaxy population emerges. Approximately 40 per cent of unbarred spiral galaxies at z ≲ 0.1 and M* ≳ 1010 M⊙ have spiral arms that can be modelled by swing amplification. This population display a significant correlation between predicted and observed spiral arm numbers, evidence that they are swing amplified modes. The remainder are dominated by two-arm systems for which the model predicts significantly higher arm numbers. These are likely driven by tidal interactions or other mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present new evidence for AGN feedback in a subset of 69 quenched low-mass galaxies (M* ⊙ 5 × 109M⊙, Mr > -19) selected from the first 2 yr of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-IV Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (SDSS-IV MaNGA) survey. The majority (85 per cent) of these quenched galaxies appear to reside in a group environment. We find six galaxies in our sample that appear to have an active AGN that is preventing on-going star formation; this is the first time such a feedback mechanism has been observed in this mass range. Interestingly, five of these six galaxies have an ionized gas component that is kinematically offset from their stellar component, suggesting the gas is either recently accreted or outflowing. We hypothesize these six galaxies are low-mass equivalents to the 'red geysers' observed in more massive galaxies. Of the other 63 galaxies in the sample, we find 8 do appear for have some low level, residual star formation, or emission from hot, evolved stars. The remaining galaxies in our sample have no detectable ionized gas emission throughout their structures, consistent with them being quenched. This work shows the potential for understanding the detailed physical properties of dwarf galaxies through spatially resolved spectroscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the morphological properties of spiral galaxies, including measurements of spiral arm number and pitch angle. Using Galaxy Zoo 2, a stellar mass-complete sample of 6222 SDSS spiral galaxies is selected. We use the machine vision algorithm SPARCFIRE to identify spiral arm features and measure their associated geometries. A support vector machine classifier is employed to identify reliable spiral features, with which we are able to estimate pitch angles for half of our sample. We use these machine measurements to calibrate visual estimates of arm tightness, and hence estimate pitch angles for our entire sample. The properties of spiral arms are compared with respect to various galaxy properties. The star formation properties of galaxies vary significantly with arm number, but not pitch angle. We find that galaxies hosting strong bars have spiral arms substantially (4°-6°) looser than unbarred galaxies. Accounting for this, spiral arms associated with many-armed structures are looser (by 2°) than those in two-armed galaxies. In contrast to this average trend, galaxies with greater bulge-to-total stellar mass ratios display both fewer and looser spiral arms. This effect is primarily driven by the galaxy disc, such that galaxies with more massive discs contain more spiral arms with tighter pitch angles. This implies that galaxy central mass concentration is not the dominant cause of pitch angle and arm number variations between galaxies, which in turn suggests that not all spiral arms are governed by classical density waves or modal theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of galaxies in the local Universe exhibit spiral structure with a variety of forms. Many galaxies possess two prominent spiral arms, some have more, while others display a many-armed flocculent appearance. Spiral arms are associated with enhanced gas content and star formation in the discs of low-redshift galaxies, so are important in the understanding of star formation in the local universe. As both the visual appearance of spiral structure, and the mechanisms responsible for it vary from galaxy to galaxy, a reliable method for defining spiral samples with different visual morphologies is required. In this paper, we develop a new debiasing method to reliably correct for redshift-dependent bias in Galaxy Zoo 2, and release the new set of debiased classifications. Using these, a luminosity-limited sample of ~18 000 Sloan Digital Sky Survey spiral galaxies is defined, which are then further sub-categorized by spiral arm number. In order to explore how different spiral galaxies form, the demographics of spiral galaxies with different spiral arm numbers are compared. It is found that whilst all spiral galaxies occupy similar ranges of stellar mass and environment, many-armed galaxies display much bluer colours than their two-armed counterparts. We conclude that two-armed structure is ubiquitous in star-forming discs, whereas many-armed spiral structure appears to be a short-lived phase, associated with more recent, stochastic star-formation activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]