The Frequency of Barred Spiral Galaxies in the Near-IR

We have determined the fraction of barred galaxies in the H-band for a statistically well-defined sample of 186 spirals drawn from the Ohio State University Bright Spiral Galaxy survey. We find 56% of our sample to be strongly barred at H, while another 16% is weakly barred. Only 27% of our sample is unbarred in the near-infrared. The RC3 and the Carnegie Atlas of Galaxies both classify only about 30% of our sample as strongly barred. Thus strong bars are nearly twice as prevalent in the near-infrared as in the optical. The frequency of genuine optically hidden bars is significant, but lower than many claims in the literature: 40% of the galaxies in our sample that are classified as unbarred in the RC3 show evidence for a bar in the H-band, while for the Carnegie Atlas this fraction is 66%. Our data reveal no significant trend in bar fraction as a function of morphology in either the optical or H-band. Optical surveys of high redshift galaxies may be strongly biased against finding bars, as bars are increasingly difficult to detect at bluer rest wavelengths.