English

Jet directions in Seyfert galaxies

Astrophysics 2010-12-09 v1

Abstract

We present the study of the relative angle between the accretion disk (or radio jet) and the galaxy disk for a sample of Seyfert galaxies selected from a mostly isotropic property, the 60μ\mum flux. For each galaxy we have a pair of points (ii,δ\delta), which are the inclination of the galaxy relative to the line of sight and the angle between the jet projected into the plane of the sky and the host galaxy major axis, respectively. This data is combined with a statistical technique to determine the distribution of β\beta angles {\it in 3 dimensions}, the angle between the jet and the host galaxy plane axis. The analysis of the data, not differentiating between Seyfert 1's and 2's, showed that the observed distribution of ii and δ\delta values can be well represented by a homogeneous β\beta-distribution in the range 0β900^{\circ}\leq\beta\leq90^{\circ}. However, when we distinguished between Seyfert 1's and 2's, the models could not represent Seyfert 1's adequately. It was necessary to introduce viewing angle restrictions, that a galaxy can only be recognized as a Seyfert 1 if the angle between the jet and the line of sight (ϕ|\phi|) is smaller than a given angle ϕc\phi_c and that the galaxy inclination ii is smaller than an angle ici_c, in order to have statistically acceptable models. This is a direct and independent confirmation of the underlying concepts of the Unified Model. We discuss several ways to explain the misalignment between the accretion disk axis and the host galaxy disk axis.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0002131,
  title  = {Jet directions in Seyfert galaxies},
  author = {A. L. Kinney and H. R. Schmitt and C. J. Clarke and J. E. Pringle and J. S. Ulvestad and R. R. J. Antonucci},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0002131},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

58 pages, 16 figures (included) and 5 tables. To appear in The Astrophysical Journal

R2 v1 2026-07-22T07:44:09.936Z