What Shapes Disk Galaxies?: Bar Driven Secular Evolution on Disk Galaxies

We present evidence of the bar driven secular evolution on disks from z~0.8 to z~0.01. Using $3.6{\mu}m$ images of nearby galaxies from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G) and images from the Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS), we find that barred galaxies show a light deficit in the disk surrounding the bar within the bar radius. We quantify this light deficit and find that galaxies with a stronger bar (longer, higher Bar/T) show a more pronounced light deficit. We examine snapshots from N-body simulations and confirm that as a barred galaxy evolves, the bar becomes longer and the light deficit becomes more pronounced. Theoretical studies have predicted that bars evolve by capturing nearby disk stars and employing them to make the bar more elongated and stronger. Therefore the light deficit in the disk is likely produced by bars, and thus bars play a major role in shaping their host galaxies, redistributing not only the gaseous but also the stellar mass within galaxies, with important consequences to their subsequent evolution.