How Does the Bar Affect AGN-Driven Quenching within Late-type Galaxies

Recent galaxy simulations suggest several scenarios in which the inner structure of late-type galaxies (LTGs) is linked to global quenching. Exactly what mechanism governs the bulge quenching is, however, still under debate due to the lack of observational clues. In this study, we utilize a sample of ~1,300 LTGs in the local universe (0.02 < z < 0.2) from SDSS 7, and classify them into star-forming, AGN-hosting, and composite types and into barred and unbarred galaxies. We also examine each subgroup's specific star forming rate (sSFR), stellar mass and compactness using a data set matched with the advanced sSFR catalog by Chang et al. (2015). We find that while star-forming and composite galaxies show no detectable difference between barred and unbarred galaxies, barred AGNs have much lower sSFR than unbarred AGNs at given stellar mass and compactness, Such tendency is stronger for more massive and/or more concentrated galaxies. The results indicate that most AGN-driven quenching is triggered by growth of the bar structure, consistent with the previous simulations of bars.