Stellar density distribution in the NIR on the Galactic plane at longitudes 15-27 deg. Clues for the Galactic bar?

Garzon et al. (1997), Lopez-Corredoira et al. (1999] and Hammersley et al. (2000) have identified in TMGS and DENIS data a large excess of stars at L=27° and b=0° which might correspond to an in-plane bar. We compared near infrared CAIN star counts and simulations from the Besancon Model of Galaxy on 15 fields between 15° and 45° in longitude and -2° and 2° in latitude. Comparisons confirm the existence of an overdensity at longitudes lower than 27° which is inhomogeneous and decreases very steeply off the Galactic plane. The observed excess in the star distribution over the predicted density is even higher than 100%. Its distance from the sun is estimated to be lower than 6 kpc. If this overdensity corresponds to the stellar population of the bar, we estimate its half-length to 3.9(plus-minus)0.4 kpc and its angle from the Sun-center direction to 45(plus-minus)9 degrees.