Dynamical Effects of Nuclear Rings in Disk Galaxies

We investigate the dynamical response of stellar orbits in a rotating barred galaxy potential to the perturbation by a nuclear gaseous ring. The change in three-dimensional periodic orbit families is examined as the gas accumulates between the inner Lindblad resonances. It is found that the phase space allowable to the x(2) family of orbits is substantially increased, and a vertical instability strip appears with the growing mass of the ring. A significant distortion of the x(1) orbits is observed in the vicinity of the ring, which leads to the intersection between orbits with different values of the Jacobi integral. We also examine the dependence of the orbital response to the eccentricity and alignment of the ring with the bar. Misalignment between an oval ring and a bar can leave observational footprints in the form of twisted near-infrared isophotes in the vicinity of the ring. It is inferred that a massive nuclear ring acts to weaken and dissolve the stellar bar exterior to the ring, whereas only weakly affecting the orbits interior to the inner Lindblad resonances. Consequences for gas evolution in the circumnuclear regions of barred galaxies are discussed as well.