Stellar population constraints on the ages of galactic bars

摘要: © 2016 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. We present a study stellar populations within central regions four nearby barred galaxies, and use novel technique to constrain duration bar activity. focus star formation 'desert', region each these galaxies where appears have been suppressed bar. New Hs spectroscopic data are presented, used produce line indices which compared with theoretical predictions from population synthesis models for simple temporally truncated histories. This analysis shows that dearth activity in continuing at least 1 Gyr, time-scales several Gyr indicated two galaxies. favours strong bars can be long-lived features but our results also indicate significant diversity ages, hence implied histories