  We conduct a statistical study of black hole masses of barred and unbarred
galaxies in the IllustrisTNG100 cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical
simulations. This work aims to understand the role of the bars in the growth of
central supermassive black hole mass and its implications on AGN fueling. Our
sample consists of 1191 barred galaxies and 2738 unbarred galaxies in the
IllustrisTNG100 simulations. To have an unbiased study, we perform our analysis
with an equal number of barred and unbarred galaxies by using various
controlled parameters like total galaxy mass, stellar mass, gas mass, dark
matter halo mass, etc. Except for the stellar mass controlling, we find that
the median of the black hole mass distribution for barred galaxies is higher
than that of the unbarred ones indicating that stellar mass is a key parameter
influencing the black hole growth. The higher mean accretion rate of the black
holes in barred galaxies, averaged since the bar forming epoch (z~2 ), explains
the higher mean black hole masses in barred galaxies. Further, we also test
that these results are unaffected by other environmental processes like
minor/major merger histories and neighboring gas density of black hole.
Although the relationship between stellar mass, bar formation, and black hole
growth is complex, with various mechanisms involved, our analysis suggests that
bars can play a crucial role in feeding black holes, particularly in galaxies
with massive stellar disks.
