Abstract
We present surface photometry and stellar kinematics of NGC 4264, a barred
lenticular galaxy in the region of the Virgo Cluster undergoing a tidal
interaction with one of its neighbours, NGC 4261. We measured the bar radius
(a_bar=3.2 +/-0.5 kpc) and strength (S_bar=0.31+/-0.04) of NGC 4264 from Sloan
Digital Sky Survey imaging and its bar pattern speed (Omega_bar=71+/-4
km/s/kpc) using the Tremaine-Weinberg method with stellar-absorption
integral-field spectroscopy performed with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic
Explorer at the Very Large Telescope. We derived the circular velocity
(V_circ=189+/-10 km/s) by correcting the stellar streaming velocity for
asymmetric drift and calculated the corotation radius (R_cor=2.8+/-0.2 kpc)
from the bar pattern speed. Finally, we estimated the bar rotation rate
(R_cor/a_bar=0.88+/-0.23). We find that NGC 4264 hosts a strong and large bar
extending out to the corotation radius. This means that the bar is rotating as
fast as it can like nearly all the other bars measured so far even when the
systematic error due to the uncertainty on the disc position angle is taken
into account. The accurate measurement of the bar rotation rate allows us to
infer that the formation of the bar of NGC 4264 was due to self-generated
internal processes and not triggered by the ongoing interaction.
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