Star formation properties in barred galaxies

Stellar bars are important structures for the internal secular evolution of galaxies. They can drive gas into the central region of galaxies, and result in an enhancement of star formation activity there. Previous studies are limited in the comparisons between barred and unbarred galaxies. Here we try to investigate the connection between star formation activities and different bars, based on multi-wavelength data in a sample of barred spirals. We find that there is no clearly trend of the surface star formation rates in different structures along the bar strength. In addition, there is larger scatter for the properties of star formation activity in the galaxies with middle-strength bars, which may indicate that a variety of star formation stages are more likely associated with these bars.