| GALBAR is a collaborative research project which aims to tackle the longstanding and surprisingly unresolved question of bar formation in galaxies. Given a diverse range of expertise on galaxy formation simulations and theoretical secular dynamics, the objective of this ANR is therefore to bring together different theoretical and numerical approaches to bar formation and confront them, to reach a holistic theoretical framework of the physics of bar formation. Large-scale cosmological hydrodynamic simulations are the most complete and realistic models of galaxy formation and evolution. However, the intrication of the involved processes makes them computationally very costly and often difficult to interpret, as in the case for the absence of bars. We therefore propose a complementary approach, combining the control of isolated galaxy models, the realism of cosmological simulations, and quasi-linear methods borrowed from kinetic theory. This synergy should unlock our understanding of physics regulating the life-cycle of bars, i.e. their formation, survival, and dissolution. |
