Nuclear star formation in galaxies due to non-axisymmetric bulges

A non-axisymmetric mass distribution of galactic structures including bulge (or bar) causes gas inflow from the disk to the nuclear region, including intense star formation within few hundred parsecs of galactic central. In order to investigate the relation between the ellipticity of the bulge and the presence of a nuclear starburst, we use a volume-limited sample of galaxies with Mr < -19.5 mag at 0.02 < z < 0.05 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. Total sample is 3252 spiral galaxies, which include nuclear starburst galaxies. We find that the occurrence of nuclear starbursts has a moderate correlation with bulge ellipticity of intermediate-type spiral galaxies (morphology classes Sab-Sb) in low galaxy number density environments and isolated regions where the distance between the target galaxies and the closest galaxies is relatively far. In high galaxy number density environments and interacting regions, close encounters and mergers between galaxies can cause gas inflow to the nuclear region even without the presence of non-axisymmetric bulges.