The Impact of Secular Features on the Evolution of Disk Galaxies
Preethi Nair - University of Alabama
Understanding the physical processes responsible for the growth of galaxies is one of the key challenges in extragalactic astronomy. The assembly history of a galaxy is imprinted in a its detailed morphology. The bulge-to-total ratio of galaxies, the presence or absence of bars, rings, spiral arms, tidal tails etc., all have implications for the past merger, star formation, and feedback history of a galaxy. I will present results on the impact of bars on the evolution of star formation rate and metallicity of galaxies and their correlations with AGN activity from z~1 till the present day. Time permitting, I will show how resolved IFU observations from SDSS MaNGA will help to place stronger constraints on the role of these structures in triggering star formation and AGN.