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Simulating the Milky Way bar and bulge with an initially S\'{e}rsic disc

T0 review · 4 major / 4 minor · reviewed 2026-08-06 · deepseek-v4-flash

Pith's one-line read An initially bulgeless galaxy with a Sérsic stellar disc and 7% gas can grow a bar and box/peanut bulge matching the Milky Way's observed bulge+bar.

desk verdict A bulgeless Sérsic disc with 7% gas gives a plausible MW bar and BP bulge, but the match sits on a metastable state the paper itself expects perturbers to break. read the letter →

arxiv 2507.20790 v1 pith:YZ6GYSCH submitted 2025-07-28 astro-ph.GA

classification astro-ph.GA
keywords MilkyWaybarbox/peanutbulgeSérsicdiscbulgelessgalaxymodelspatternspeedgas-regulatedgrowthN-bodysimulationGalacticdynamics
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal

The pith

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The reading

The paper claims that a classical bulge is not needed to explain the Milky Way's boxy bulge: a galaxy that starts bulgeless, with a centrally concentrated Sérsic stellar disc and a modest gas disc, can evolve a bar and box/peanut (BP) bulge whose length, pattern speed, and shape match the observed bulge+bar. The authors build equilibrium initial conditions with a modified version of the GalactICS code that replaces the usual exponential disc with a Sérsic profile (best fit $n = 1.75$) and run isolated N-body plus hydrodynamics simulations with gas fractions from 0% to 30%. Gasless models develop runaway bars that grow to 8-10 kpc and spin down far below the Milky Way value, while adding a gas disc of only 7% of the stellar mass produces a metastable bar that stays fast and short for several gigayears; three independent 7%-gas runs reach the same configuration, suggesting the result does not depend on the numerical recipe. If the claim is right, the Milky Way's bulge formed secularly from the disc under the bar's influence, and gas, rather than a classical bulge or a specially tuned halo, is the main regulator of bar growth.

What carries the argument

The central object is the Sérsic stellar disc, with surface density $\Sigma(R) = \Sigma_0 e^{-(R/R_d)^{1/n}}$, which for $n > 1$ is denser in the centre than an exponential disc and thereby mimics the excess central light that other Milky Way models attribute to a classical bulge. The mechanism that carries the argument is gas-regulated metastability: the 7% gas disc is funnelled inward by the bar, briefly raising the pattern speed and trapping the bar in a metastable state (in the sense of Sellwood & Debattista 2006) in which the resonances face a rising phase-space density, suppressing angular-momentum loss to the halo. This keeps the bar short and fast for several gigayears, while gasless discs shed angular momentum steadily and grow bars of 8-10 kpc. The enabling tool is a modified GalactICS code that constructs equilibrium Sérsic discs with a double-exponential radial velocity dispersion, which is what allows the bulgeless initial conditions to exist at all.

What would settle it

Measure the Milky Way bar's corotation ratio and pattern-speed history with Gaia-era data: the TG07 scenario requires a fast bar ($R_{\rm CR}/R_{\rm bar} < 1.4$) whose speed is roughly flat over the last ~1 Gyr, so finding a slow bar or steady multi-gigayear deceleration rules the model out. The numerical complement is to rerun the TG07 initial conditions with a satellite or subhalo perturber, which the paper's Appendix C identifies as the likely route out of metastability; if the bar then resumes lengthening and spindown within a few gigayears, the isolated simulation overstates the durability of the matched state.

Watch

Extended reading notes

Core claim

The paper's central claim, stated in its conclusions, is that it is indeed possible to build a plausible Milky Way bar and box/peanut bulge from bulgeless initial conditions, provided a gas disc is present. The best-fit model, TG07, starts from a Sérsic stellar disc with index $n = 1.75$ and no classical bulge, a gas disc with 7% of the stellar mass, and a dark halo; at $t = 3$ Gyr it reproduces the Milky Way's bar length ($\sim 4.25$ kpc), pattern speed ($\sim 44$ km s$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-1}$), and the double-peaked line-of-sight number counts that trace the X-shaped BP bulge in the Gonzalez et al. (2015) data. The gas is the load-bearing ingredient: the gasless equivalents grow bars of 8-10 kpc with pattern speeds of roughly 20-35 km s$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-1}$, far outside the observed range, while three different 7%-gas realizations converge on the same steady configuration. The authors interpret this as a metastable state in which gas funneled to the centre briefly raises the pattern speed, trapping the bar against secular slowdown, and they emphasise that the match to the Milky Way lasts only about 1 Gyr before the model evolves away.

Load-bearing premise

The load-bearing premise is that the Milky Way's bar is right now sitting in the same short-lived metastable state that the simulated bar occupies at $t = 3$ Gyr, and that the real bar has not been perturbed out of that state; the paper's own runs show the state breaks down by 13 Gyr and that the model drifts from the observed rotation curve and surface density at late times, so if the real bar has been significantly disturbed, the resemblance is a snapshot coincidence rather than an explanation.

Editorial extensions

If this is right

  • The Milky Way's bulge can be entirely secular: a classical bulge is not required to produce the observed box/peanut shape, so the Galaxy's central light excess may come from the disc itself.
  • A gas disc of only a few percent of the stellar mass can hold a bar in a fast, metastable configuration for several gigayears, so reproducing the Milky Way's bar length and pattern speed does not require a specially tuned halo.
  • Because a simulation can match the Milky Way's bar for only about 1 Gyr before evolving away, models should be compared through snapshot matching, and the time a model takes to reach an observed configuration could be used to date Galactic structures.
  • The 7%-gas models host fast bars ($R_{\rm CR}/R_{\rm bar} < 1.4$) for nearly their entire evolution, implying that if this scenario describes the Galaxy, the Milky Way's bar should likewise be fast.

Reading between the lines

Editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • An implication the paper leaves implicit is that real galaxies with satellite encounters would likely be knocked out of the metastable state, so for the Milky Way the match would need either recent re-entry into metastability or an additional stabilising agent; re-running these initial conditions with live substructure would settle this.
  • The same construction predicts a population-level trend the paper does not state: gas-rich, bulgeless barred galaxies should preferentially host short, fast bars, which is testable with edge-on samples of barred galaxies.
  • The paper's unconvolved line-of-sight distributions show a sharper double-peaked bulge signature than the magnitude-convolved data reveal, so surveys with individual stellar distances could recover that intrinsic bimodality and test the BP shape more strictly than the histograms used here.
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Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, and a circularity audit.

Referee Report

4 major / 4 minor

Summary. The paper presents isolated galaxy simulations built with a modified GalactICS that generates bulgeless initial conditions with Sérsic stellar discs and optional gas discs. A D-series varies gas fraction from 0% to 30% and a TG-series is based on the Tepper-Garcia et al. (2021) Milky Way model. The authors report that gas suppresses the secular growth of the bar and that their best model, TG07, at a selected t=3 Gyr snapshot roughly matches the Milky Way's bar length, pattern speed, and box/peanut bulge line-of-sight density distributions. The central claim in Section 5 is that it is possible to build a plausible Milky Way bar and BP bulge from bulgeless initial conditions provided a gas disc is present.

Significance. If the central claim holds, this is a useful proof-of-possibility result: it demonstrates that a classical bulge is not required to reproduce several Milky Way bar/bulge observables. The paper has clear strengths: the modified GalactICS code is publicly available, the three TG07 variants test robustness to random seeds and feedback implementation, and the mock red clump/RGBB comparisons against Gonzalez et al. (2015) are more independent than the bar-length and pattern-speed comparisons. The work also includes unusually explicit caveats about snapshot matching and metastability in Appendices B and C. The main value is as a proof-of-concept and as a tool release rather than as a unique or fully constrained model of the Milky Way.

major comments (4)
  1. [§4.2.2, Table 2, Appendix C, Figure C1] The stress-test concern about the metastable state lands. The TG07 match to the Milky Way is evaluated at t=3 Gyr, a snapshot selected because it best satisfies the three bar measurements in Table 2, and at that time the bar is in the metastable state discussed in Appendix C. Appendix C explicitly states that this state is 'quite fragile, and liable to be broken by external perturbations, such as would arise in a fully cosmological setting,' and Figure C1 shows that by 13 Gyr all three TG07 models leave the state, with TG07v2 and TG07v3 growing rapidly and TG07 becoming a slow rotator. Because the real Milky Way has experienced satellite impacts and ongoing gas inflow, the Section 5 claim requires either a direct perturbation test (for instance, a delayed satellite flyby or a subhalo encounter in the same numerical setup) or a clear scope restriction to isolated evolution. Without one of these, the conclusion is supported only by an unperturbed, selected snapshot.
  2. [Table 2, §4.2, §5] The treatment of the Chiba et al. (2021) slowdown constraint is not fully convincing. At the selected t=3 Gyr snapshot, Table 2 lists Omega_dot_p = -8 km/s/kpc/Gyr for TG07, which is about 2.5 sigma from the Milky Way value of -4.5 +/- 1.4. Section 5 dismisses this constraint because Chiba et al. assume a linear Omega_p(t), but the observable is a local deceleration estimate, and the paper does not demonstrate that the TG07 nonlinearity makes the comparison invalid. The authors should either apply the Chiba et al. measurement methodology to the simulation to compute what that method would infer from TG07, or explicitly list the slow-down rate as an unmatched property in Section 5.
  3. [Appendix B, Figure B1] The rotational-curve and surface-density comparisons are shown only at t=0 and t=10 Gyr, even though the Milky Way match is claimed at t=3 Gyr. At t=10 Gyr the TG07 rotation curve is 15-20 km/s lower than the Eilers et al. (2019) data between 5 and 10 kpc and is still rising where the observed curve falls, and the surface density profile in Figure B1 shows a double inflection not present in the Bovy & Rix (2013) data. Because the t=3 Gyr snapshot is the one claimed to represent the Milky Way, these diagnostics should be shown at t=3 Gyr as well; otherwise the 'plausible Milky Way' statement should be explicitly limited to the bar and BP-bulge observables.
  4. [§3.2, §4.1, Table 2] There is a degree of fit-driven agreement that should be quantified. The Sersic index n=1.75 and the 7% gas fraction were chosen after inspecting the D-series outcomes, and the snapshot in Table 2 is selected using the same bar measurements against which the model is judged. This is not fatal for a proof-of-possibility, but the paper should state how sensitive the match is to these choices, for example by indicating how far n and the gas fraction can be varied before the bar length or pattern speed leaves the observed ranges. The three TG07 variants establish robustness to seeds and feedback but not to the initial-condition parameters themselves.
minor comments (4)
  1. [Figure 8 caption] The caption says the TG sequence is shown 'at t = 10 Gyr,' but the figure and the associated text in Section 4.2.2 compare snapshots at t=3, 5, and 10 Gyr; the caption should be corrected.
  2. [§4.2.1] The text refers to 'model T00' where the context indicates model TG00; please correct the typo.
  3. [Table B1] The column header 'TG07 - 5 Gy' is truncated; it should read 'TG07 - 5 Gyr'.
  4. [Appendix D, Figure D4] The alternate normalization used in Figure D4 is important for interpreting the shapes of the line-of-sight distributions, but readers meet it only in an appendix; a brief explanation in Section 4.2.2 would make the main comparison easier to follow.

Circularity Check

2 steps flagged · score 4.0 of 10

The abstract's 'reproduces' is partly selection-driven: the 7% gas fraction and the t = 3 Gyr comparison snapshot are chosen using the same MW bar and BP measurements that are then presented as reproduced; the bar and BP are nonetheless emergent N-body products, so the bulgeless-IC claim keeps independent content (score 4).

  1. fitted input called prediction [Section 4.2 and Section 4.1.2 (model selection); abstract 'best-fit model']
    "Based on the results of the D-sequence models, we only consider a gasless model, TG00, and three instances with a 7% gas disc, (TG07, TG07v2, and TG07v3). ... Ultimately, the D07 model has the most similar shape to the Gonzalez et al. (2015) data across all panels. ... Our best-fit model has an initial stellar disc with a Sérsic index of n = 1.75 and a gas disc with mass equal to 7% of the mass of the stellar disc. The model reproduces the bar size, pattern speed, and box/peanut shape of the Milky Way's bulge+bar."

    The 7% gas fraction that defines the 'best-fit' TG07 model is not derived from first principles; it is the fraction carried over from D07, the grid model judged most similar to the MW in the Gonzalez et al. (2015) BP data, after the D-series had already been compared with the MW bar measurements. Presenting TG07 as reproducing the MW bar size, pattern speed, and BP shape therefore restates, in part, the comparison used to pick the gas fraction rather than an independent prediction of those quantities. This is partial: the bar and BP properties are emergent outputs of a full N-body/SPH evolution, not values inserted into an equation, and the paper explicitly aims for a 'plausible' rather than finely fitted model; the 2D line-of-sight BP distribution retains independent content.

  2. fitted input called prediction [Table 2 caption; Section 4.2.2]
    "For the simulations, the specific snapshot is selected based on the quality of the combined comparison to the three MW measurements."

    The evolution time is effectively a free parameter: the snapshot is chosen to maximise agreement with the very same three MW measurements (bar length, pattern speed, slowdown rate) that the abstract says the model 'reproduces'. The reported Rbar = 4.25 ± 0.5 kpc and Ωp = 44 km/s/kpc at t = 3 Gyr are therefore partly guaranteed by the selection rule rather than derived as unconstrained predictions. The circularity is incomplete: the TG07 bar is metastable, keeping Rbar and Ωp nearly constant from ~3.5 to ~10 Gyr, so the match is not confined to a single snapshot, and the slowdown rate still fails at the selected snapshot (-8 vs MW -4.5 ± 1.4 km/s/kpc/Gyr), so all three targets are not forced.

full rationale

The central claim — that a bulgeless Sérsic stellar disc plus a 7% gas disc can form a Milky Way-like bar and BP bulge — is established by direct N-body/SPH simulation: the ICs contain no classical bulge, and the bar and peanut structure grow self-consistently via the bar instability (Figs 2, 5–9), so no equation feeds the target bar size or BP shape into the ICs. The two flagged effects (gas-fraction grid selection and comparison-snapshot selection) mean part of the agreement with the three MW bar measurements is selection-driven; that is why the score is not lower. The BP-shape comparison against the Gonzalez et al. (2015) starcount data is the most independent evidence: it is a 2D line-of-sight distribution, was not a fitted input, and the paper documents the residual mismatch (missing central dips, weaker BP signature). The initial rotation-curve match is explicitly acknowledged to be inherited from the Tepper-Garcia et al. (2021) ICs by construction, and the evolved RC comparison is genuine (and partly fails). Self-citations do not create load-bearing circularity: the GalactICS code (Deg et al. 2019) is public; metastability (Sellwood & Debattista 2006) is an external mechanism whose presence is verified here by the nearly constant Rbar and Ωp over ~3.5–10 Gyr in Fig. 6; and Gonzalez et al. (2015) is observational. Appendix C's admission that the metastable state is 'quite fragile, and liable to be broken by external perturbations' and that 'confirmation needs further simulations with substructure taken into account' is an honest robustness limitation, not a circular step. Score 4: some self-citation and selection-driven agreement, but the central claim retains independent, emergent content.

Assumptions & free parameters 6 free parameters · 4 assumptions · 0 invented entities

The model's success depends on several hand-picked parameters, most importantly the Sérsic index and the 7% gas fraction, and on the assumption that bulgeless isolated initial conditions plus a simple gas prescription capture the Milky Way's formation. The paper is explicit that the result is a plausible scenario rather than a unique prediction.

free parameters (6)
  • Sérsic index n = 1.75 (TG series), 1.5 (D series)
    Chosen to reproduce the combined bulge+disc surface density profile of the Tepper-Garcia et al. (2021) model (Section 3.2).
  • Gas disc mass fraction = 7% of the stellar disc mass
    Tuned to reproduce the observed MW bar length and pattern speed; the D-series varied the fraction from 0% to 30% and 7% gave the closest match (Section 4.1 and Table 2).
  • Gas disc scale length Rg = 6.5 kpc
    Chosen by hand for all gas models, about 2.4 times the stellar disc scale length (Table 1 and Section 3.2).
  • Gas disc temperature = 10^4 K
    Fixed for all gas models (Table 1).
  • Star formation efficiency = 5% probability per dynamical time; SN feedback 0.8e51 erg (0.4e51 for D30)
    Subgrid parameters from Stinson et al. (2009) and Keller et al. (2014); affect the gas dynamics and therefore the bar evolution (Section 3.3).
  • Disc velocity dispersion parameters = sigma_r1=80 km/s, R_sigma1=2.5 kpc, sigma_r2=70 km/s, R_sigma2=1.8 kpc (TG series)
    Double exponential profile chosen to keep Toomre Q > 1 at all radii for the Sérsic disc (Appendix A).
assumptions (4)
  • domain assumption The Milky Way has no significant classical bulge; the central light excess is produced by the bar and box/peanut bulge.
    Used to justify bulgeless initial conditions (Section 1). If false, the ICs would not represent the MW.
  • domain assumption Isolated galaxy evolution without cosmological accretion or substructure is adequate for the timescales studied.
    The paper notes in Appendix C that the metastable bar state is fragile and may be broken by external perturbations, so this is a load-bearing simplification.
  • domain assumption The gas disc, star formation, and feedback prescriptions in ChaNGa reproduce the dynamical effect of gas on the bar.
    The central claim depends on gas regulating bar growth; different subgrid parameters change the bar evolution (TG07v2/v3 tests, Section 4.2).
  • domain assumption The N-body and SPH codes with the adopted softening and time-stepping resolve the relevant bar-forming instabilities.
    Standard codes (pkdgrav2, ChaNGa) are used; no full convergence study is presented beyond a few variants.

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Cite this review

Pith. "Pith review of Simulating the Milky Way bar and bulge with an initially S\'{e}rsic disc." pith.science (2026). https://pith.science/paper/YZ6GYSCH

@misc{pith2026250720790,
  author       = {Pith},
  title        = {Pith review of: Simulating the Milky Way bar and bulge with an initially S\'ersic disc},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://pith.science/paper/YZ6GYSCH}},
  note         = {Machine review of arXiv:2507.20790}
}
abstract

We model the formation of a bar plus box/peanut bulge (BP bulge) component in a Milky Way-like disc galaxy using simulations of isolated multi-component systems that evolve from equilibrium initial conditions. The simulations are designed to test the hypothesis that the bar forms early on and thickens to create the bulge. To this end, our initial conditions include a stellar disc with a S\'{e}rsic surface density profile and do not include any classical bulge component. We also include a gas disc, which is important in regulating the growth of the bar. Our best-fit model has an initial stellar disc with a S\'{e}rsic index of $n = 1.75$ and a gas disc with mass equal to 7% of the mass of the stellar disc. The model reproduces the bar size, pattern speed, and box/peanut shape of the Milky Way's bulge+bar.

Figures

Figures reproduced from arXiv: 2507.20790 by the authors.

Figure 1
Figure 1. Surface density profiles for bulge+disc, S´ersic, and MED models. The surface density Σ is shown in the top panels on a semi-log plot. The exponential disc (red dotted curves) and bulge (red dashed curves) are shown for the D’Onghia & Aguerri (2020) (left) and Tepper-Garcia et al. (2021) (right) models. The total surface brightness profiles for these bulge+disc models is shown as solid black curves. The S´ersic mode… view at source ↗
Figure 2
Figure 2. A comparison of the inner stellar disc for the D sequence models. The upper left panel pair shows the surface density and cross-section of the stellar disc for each D model at T = 0 Gyr, while the other panels show the stellar disc of the D-series at t = 10 Gyr. In all 10 Gyr panels, the stellar discs are rotated to place the bar along the x-axis. For the (x, z)-plane views, we have imposed a cut |y| < 1 kpc to emph… view at source ↗
Figure 3
Figure 3. A comparison of the 2nd Fourier moment amplitude (top panel) and phase (bottom panel) for the D-sequence of models at t = 10 Gyr. The bar angle has been set relative to the value of ϕ2 in the innermost radial bin. The dashed line in the upper panel shows the a2 < 0.1 limit, while the grey shaded region in the bottom panel shows the size of the |δϕ2| < 10◦ which are both used to determine the bar length in Sec. 4.1.1… view at source ↗
Figures from the paper (6 more)
Figure 4
Figure 4. Figure 4: The evolution of the bars in the ‘D’-series of models. From top to bottom the panels show the maximum of A2(R) as the bar strength, the rms of the disc vertical height within the inner 2 kpc, the bar length, the bar pattern speed, and the bar slowdown rate. The dark gr…
Figure 5
Figure 5. Figure 5: Mock observations of the simulations along different lines-of-sight towards the BP-bulge for the D sequence of models at t = 10 Gyr. The upper three rows have all been convolved with the observed widths of both red clump and red giant branch bump stellar magnitudes, wh…
Figure 6
Figure 6. Figure 6: The bar evolution of the TG-sequence of models as function of time. From top to bottom the panels show the maximum of a2(R) as the bar strength, the rms of the disc vertical height within the inner 2 kpc, the bar length, the bar pattern speed, and the bar slowdown rate…
Figure 7
Figure 7. Figure 7: A comparison of the surface density maps and 2 kpc-wide cross-sections of the stellar disc of the TG07 model at different times. In all panels, the stellar discs are rotated to place the bar along the x-axis. For the (x, z)-plane views, we have imposed a cut |y| < 1 kp…
Figure 8
Figure 8. Figure 8: Mock observations of red clump star and RGBB magnitudes along different lines-of-sight towards the BP-bulge for the TG sequence of models at t = 10 Gyr. As with [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p014_8.png]
Figure 9
Figure 9. Figure 9: The evolution of the h4 profiles along the bar’s major axis in the three TG07 models. The double minima are a signature of the BP bulge. The vertical dashed lines indicate the radius of the bar at the given time, while the horizontal dashed line indicates h4 = 0. bulge…

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Pith tools

Reviewed August 6, 2026 · model on record in the stance chip above.