Tidally Induced Bars in Dwarf Galaxies on Different Orbits around a Milky Way-like Host

Abstract

Bars in galaxies may develop through a global instability or as a result of an interaction with another system. We study bar formation in disky dwarf galaxies orbiting a Milky Way-like galaxy. We employ N -body simulations to study the impact of the initial orbital parameters: the size of the dwarf galaxy orbit, and the inclination of its disk with respect to the orbital plane. In all cases, a bar develops in the center of the dwarf during the first pericenter on its orbit around the host. Between subsequent pericenter passages, the bars are stable, but at the pericenters, they are usually weakened and shortened. The initial properties and details of the further evolution of the bars depend heavily on the orbital configuration. We find that for the exactly prograde orientation, the strongest bar is formed for the intermediate-sized orbit. On the tighter orbit, the disk is too disturbed and stripped to form a strong bar. On the wider orbit, the tidal interaction is too weak. The dependence on the disk inclination is such that weaker bars form in more inclined disks. The bars experience either a very weak buckling or none at all. We do not observe any secular evolution, possibly because the dwarfs are perturbed at each pericenter passage. The rotation speed of the bars can be classified as slow ( R CR / l bar ∼ 2–3). We attribute this to the loss of a significant fraction of the disk rotation during the encounter with the host galaxy.