Is star formation in gas-rich bars suppressed?

Abstract Whether the star formation efficiency (SFE) in the bar region is lower than those in the other regions in a barred galaxy has recently been debated. We statistically investigate the SFEs along the bars in nearby gas-rich massive star-forming barred galaxies by distinguishing the center, bar-end, and bar regions for the first time. The molecular gas surface density is derived from archival CO(1–0) and/or CO(2–1) data and the star formation rate surface density is derived from a linear combination of far-ultraviolet and mid-infrared intensities. To distinguish the three regions, we targeted 18 galaxies with a large apparent bar length (≥ 75"). The resulting SFE in the bars is about 0.6 – 0.8 times lower than that in the disks, which suggests the star formation in the bars tends to be systematically suppressed.