1 Introduction

   

Table 1: Sample of observed galaxies

Galaxies	$\alpha$(2000)	$\delta$(2000)	Type	z	D25	i	PA $_{\rm disc}$	Central	$t_{\rm expo}$
				[10-3]	[']	[$^{\circ}$]	[$^{\circ}$]	Activity	[s]
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)	(10)
ESO374-G032	$10^{\rm h}06^{\rm m}04^{\rm s}$	$-33^{\circ}53'02''$	GPair	34		51		STB	1200/1200
ESO264-G036	$10^{\rm h}43^{\rm m}08^{\rm s}$	$-46^{\circ}12'39''$	SB(s)b	23	$1.1 \times 0.7$	49	102		1200/1200
NGC3393	$10^{\rm h}48^{\rm m}24^{\rm s}$	$-25^{\circ}09'40''$	(R')SB(s)ab	12	$2.2 \times 2.0$	24		STB/Sy2	1200/1200
ESO215-G031	$11^{\rm h}10^{\rm m}35^{\rm s}$	$-49^{\circ}06'12''$	(R'1)SB(r)b	9	$2.4 \times 1.7$	41	130	STB	1200/1200
ESO320-G030	$11^{\rm h}53^{\rm m}12^{\rm s}$	$-39^{\circ}07'49''$	(R'1)SAB(r)a	11	$2.2 \times 1.3$	55	121	STB	1200/1200
ESO443-G017	$12^{\rm h}57^{\rm m}45^{\rm s}$	$-29^{\circ}45'59''$	(R)SB(r'l)0/a	10	$1.4 \times 0.9$	50	23	STB	1200/1200
NGC4903	$13^{\rm h}01^{\rm m}23^{\rm s}$	$-30^{\circ}56'02''$	SB(rs)c	16	$1.5 \times 1.3$	36	73	Sy2	1200/1200
NGC4941	$13^{\rm h}04^{\rm m}13^{\rm s}$	$-05^{\circ}33'06''$	(R)SAB(r)ab	4	$3.6 \times 1.9$	57	15	Sy2	1200/1200
NGC4939	$13^{\rm h}04^{\rm m}14^{\rm s}$	$-10^{\circ}20'23''$	SA(s)bc	10	$5.5 \times 2.8$	59	10	Sy2	1200/1200
ESO323-G077	$13^{\rm h}06^{\rm m}27^{\rm s}$	$-40^{\circ}24'50''$	(R)SB(l)0	15	$1.5 \times 1.0$	47	155	STB/Sy1	1200/1200
ESO508-G005	$13^{\rm h}06^{\rm m}56^{\rm s}$	$-23^{\circ}55'02''$	SB(rl)0/a	10	$1.3 \times 1.0$	41		Sy2	1200/1200
NGC5135	$13^{\rm h}25^{\rm m}44^{\rm s}$	$-29^{\circ}50'02''$	SB(l)ab	14	$2.6 \times 1.8$	45		STB/Sy2	1200/1200
NGC5643	$14^{\rm h}32^{\rm m}41^{\rm s}$	$-44^{\circ}10'28''$	SAB(rs)c	4	$4.6 \times 4.0$	29		Sy2	1200/600
NGC6221	$16^{\rm h}52^{\rm m}47^{\rm s}$	$-59^{\circ}12'59''$	SB(s)bc pec	5	$3.5 \times 2.5$	46	5	Sy2	900/900
NGC6300	$17^{\rm h}16^{\rm m}59^{\rm s}$	$-62^{\circ}59'11''$	SB(rs)b	4	$4.5 \times 3.0$	49	118	Sy2	900/750

Columns (2), (3), (4), (5), (6) & (7): from the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED).
Column (8): position angle on the sky measured from North through East; from de Vaucouleurs et al. (1991).
Column (9): Sy = Seyferts from Véron & Véron (1993)/STB=starbursts (see text).
Column (10): total exposure time, x/y $\rightarrow$ x seconds in J-band and y seconds in K'-band.

Fueling of the inner region of starburst galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGN) is still an unresolved issue. Several clues are useful to investigate this problem. For example, Shlosman et al. (1989) have suggested that bars within bars are engines to include in mechanisms for gas fueling active nuclei. In this scenario, the primary (large-scale) bar brings gas, through angular momentum transfer, from the outer part of the galaxy down to few kpc from the central region. From there, the nuclear bar could take over and drive this gas toward the inner region. Friedli & Martinet (1993) using 3D self-consistent numerical simulations confirmed the possibility of forming stable systems (over several Gyr) with secondary bars within primary bars, and showed that these features might play a key role in collecting gas into the central region. Moreover, such embedded structures have already been observed in several galaxies (e.g. de Vaucouleurs 1974; Jarvis et al. 1998; Wozniak et al. 1995, Paper I).

Bringing material from the periphery to a region very close to the central activity requires a multi-scale process, so a multi-scale analysis appears appropriate. In addition, the fueling activity problem seems also to depend on the activity type (AGN or starburst):

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Primary bars (large-scale): contrary to other previous results (e.g. Ho et al. 1997), Knapen et al. (2000) suggest that Seyfert hosts are barred more often that non-Seyfert ones. Starburst galaxies seem to have a higher incidence of primary bars (e.g. Hunt & Malkan 1999).

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Secondary bars (small-scale): it is not yet well established if they are more prevalent in Seyferts than in non-active galaxies (Paper I; Jungwiert et al. 1997) or not Mulchaey & Regan (1997).

Thus additional morphological and kinematical studies of starburst and AGN remain necessary to give some more insight on the host dynamics and evolution.

In view of all previous considerations, this study presents J and K'surface photometry of fifteen starburst and Seyfert galaxies in order to infer their morphological and structural properties. The principal aim is to detect bars and embedded bars among objects of this sample. The near-IR bands are less affected by dust than visual ones, and they are well suited to study the obscured central parts of disc galaxies. The information provided by these filters is essential to obtain reliable parameters about the old stellar population which is dynamically the most important one. While several near-IR imaging studies have recently been published (Friedli et al. 1996, Paper II; Jungwiert et al. 1997; Mulchaey et al. 1997; Alonso-Herrero et al. 1998; Peletier et al. 1999; Márquez et al. 1999), the total number of galaxies observed in these wavelengths is still modest so new data are necessary. Moreover, since galaxies might experienced secular evolution (see Friedli 1999 for a review), i.e. the small and large-scale morphology of galaxies could change over cosmological time-scales ( $\approx\!10\,$Gyr), it is crucial to observe the largest sample possible of various morphological configurations. Thus increasing appreciably near-IR data is essential to study the birth and evolution of embedded structures.

The paper is organized as follows. The sample, observations, reduction processes and the analysis methods are described in Sect. 2. Section 3 contains the results in form of individual descriptions of the sampled objects. The global analysis and discussions are given Sect. 4 and our conclusions in Sect. 5.