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Discovery of Water Maser Emission in Eight AGNs with 70 m Antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network
We report the discovery of water maser emission in eight active galacticnuclei (AGNs) with the 70 m NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas atTidbinbilla, Australia, and Robledo, Spain. The positions of the newlydiscovered masers, measured with the VLA, are consistent with theoptical positions of the host nuclei to within 1 σ (0.3" radio and1.3" optical) and most likely mark the locations of the embedded centralengines. The spectra of two sources, NGC 3393 and NGC 5495, display thecharacteristic spectral signature of emission from an edge-on accretiondisk, with orbital velocities of ~600 and ~400 km s-1,respectively. In a survey with DSN facilities of 630 AGNs selected fromthe NASA Extragalactic Database, we have discovered a total of 15 watermaser sources. The resulting incidence rate of maser emission amongnearby (vsys<7000 km s-1) Seyfert 1.8-2.0 andLINER systems is ~10% for a typical rms noise level of ~14 mJy over 1.3km s-1 spectral channels. As a result of this work, thenumber of nearby AGNs (vsys<7000 km s-1)observed with <20 mJy rms noise has increased from 130 to 449.
| The Host Galaxies of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies: Nuclear Dust Morphology and Starburst Rings
We present a study of the nuclear morphology of a sample of narrow- andbroad-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s and BLS1s, respectively) based onbroadband images in the Hubble Space Telescope archives. In our previousstudy we found that large-scale stellar bars at >1 kpc from thenucleus are more common in NLS1s than BLS1s. In this paper we find thatNLS1s preferentially have grand-design dust spirals within ~1 kpc oftheir centers. We also find that NLS1s have a higher fraction of nuclearstar-forming rings than BLS1s. We find that many of the morphologicaldifferences are due to the presence or absence of a large-scale stellarbar within the spiral host galaxy. In general, barred Seyfert 1 galaxiestend to have grand-design dust spirals at their centers, confirming theresults of other researchers. The high fraction of grand-design nucleardust spirals and stellar nuclear rings observed in NLS1s' host galaxiessuggests a means for efficient fueling of their nuclei to support theirhigh Eddington ratios.
| Extragalactic H_2O masers and X-ray absorbing column densities
Having conducted a search for the λ 1.3 cm (22 GHz) water vaporline towards galaxies with nuclear activity, large nuclear columndensities or high infrared luminosities, we present H2O spectra for NGC2273, UGC 5101, and NGC 3393 with isotropic luminosities of 7, 1500, and400 Lȯ. The H2O maser in UGC 5101 is by far the mostluminous yet found in an ultraluminous infrared galaxy. NGC 3393 revealsthe classic spectrum of a "disk maser", represented by three distinctgroups of Doppler components. As in all other known cases except NGC4258, the rotation velocity of the putative masing disk is well below1000 km s-1. Based on the literature and archive data, X-rayabsorbing column densities are compiled for the 64 galaxies withreported maser sources beyond the Magellanic Clouds. For NGC 2782 andNGC 5728, we present Chandra archive data that indicate the presence ofan active galactic nucleus in both galaxies. Modeling the hard nuclearX-ray emission, NGC 2782 is best fit by a high energy reflectionspectrum with NH 1024 cm-2. ForNGC 5728, partial absorption with a power law spectrum indicatesNH 8 × 1023 cm-2. Thecorrelation between absorbing column and H2O emission is analyzed. Thereis a striking difference between kilo- and megamasers with megamasersbeing associated with higher column densities. All kilomasers (L_H_2O< 10 Lȯ) except NGC 2273 and NGC 5194 areCompton-thin, i.e. their absorbing columns are <1024cm-2. Among the H{2}O megamasers, 50% arise fromCompton-thick and 85% from heavily obscured (>1023cm-2) active galactic nuclei. These values are not larger butconsistent with those from samples of Seyfert 2 galaxies not selected onthe basis of maser emission. The similarity in column densities can beexplained by small deviations in position between maser spots andnuclear X-ray source and a high degree of clumpiness in thecircumnuclear interstellar medium.
| An IRAS High Resolution Image Restoration (HIRES) Atlas of All Interacting Galaxies in the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample
The importance of far-infrared observations for our understanding ofextreme activity in interacting and merging galaxies has beenillustrated by many studies. Even though two decades have passed sinceits launch, the most complete all-sky survey to date from which far-IRselected galaxy samples can be chosen is still that of the InfraredAstronomical Satellite (IRAS). However, the spatial resolution of theIRAS all-sky survey is insufficient to resolve the emission fromindividual galaxies in most interacting galaxy pairs, and hence previousstudies of their far-IR properties have had to concentrate either onglobal system properties or on the properties of very widely separatedand weakly interacting pairs. Using the HIRES image reconstructiontechnique, it is possible to achieve a spatial resolution ranging from30" to 1.5m (depending on wavelength and detector coverage), whichis a fourfold improvement over the normal resolution of IRAS. This issufficient to resolve the far-IR emission from the individual galaxiesin many interacting systems detected by IRAS, which is very importantfor meaningful comparisons with single, isolated galaxies. We presenthigh-resolution 12, 25, 60, and 100 μm images of 106 interactinggalaxy systems contained in the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample (RBGS,Sanders et al.), a complete sample of all galaxies having a 60 μmflux density greater than 5.24 Jy. These systems were selected to haveat least two distinguishable galaxies separated by less than threeaverage galactic diameters, and thus we have excluded very widelyseparated systems and very advanced mergers. Additionally, some systemshave been included that are more than three galactic diameters apart,yet have separations less than 4' and are thus likely to suffer fromconfusion in the RBGS. The new complete survey has the same propertiesas the prototype survey of Surace et al. We find no increased tendencyfor infrared-bright galaxies to be associated with other infrared-brightgalaxies among the widely separated pairs studied here. We find smallenhancements in far-IR activity in multiple galaxy systems relative toRBGS noninteracting galaxies with the same blue luminosity distribution.We also find no differences in infrared activity (as measured byinfrared color and luminosity) between late- and early-type spiralgalaxies.
| Redshift-Distance Survey of Early-Type Galaxies: Spectroscopic Data
We present central velocity dispersions and Mg2 line indicesfor an all-sky sample of ~1178 elliptical and S0 galaxies, of which 984had no previous measures. This sample contains the largest set ofhomogeneous spectroscopic data for a uniform sample of ellipticalgalaxies in the nearby universe. These galaxies were observed as part ofthe ENEAR project, designed to study the peculiar motions and internalproperties of the local early-type galaxies. Using 523 repeatedobservations of 317 galaxies obtained during different runs, the dataare brought to a common zero point. These multiple observations, takenduring the many runs and different instrumental setups employed for thisproject, are used to derive statistical corrections to the data and arefound to be relatively small, typically <~5% of the velocitydispersion and 0.01 mag in the Mg2 line strength. Typicalerrors are about 8% in velocity dispersion and 0.01 mag inMg2, in good agreement with values published elsewhere.
| The Seyfert Population in the Local Universe
The magnitude-limited catalog of the Southern Sky Redshift Survey(SSRS2) is used to characterize the properties of galaxies hostingactive galactic nuclei (AGNs). Using emission-line ratios, we identify atotal of 162 (3%) Seyfert galaxies out of the parent sample with 5399galaxies. The sample contains 121 Seyfert 2 galaxies and 41 Seyfert 1galaxies. The SSRS2 Seyfert galaxies are predominantly in spirals oftypes Sb and earlier or in galaxies with perturbed appearance as theresult of strong interactions or mergers. Seyfert galaxies in thissample are twice as common in barred hosts as the non-Seyfert galaxies.By assigning galaxies to groups using a percolation algorithm, we findthat the Seyfert galaxies in the SSRS2 are more likely to be found inbinary systems when compared with galaxies in the SSRS2 parent sample.However, there is no statistically significant difference between theSeyfert and SSRS2 parent sample when systems with more than two galaxiesare considered. The analysis of the present sample suggests that thereis a stronger correlation between the presence of the AGN phenomenonwith internal properties of galaxies (morphology, presence of bar,luminosity) than with environmental effects (local galaxy density, groupvelocity dispersion, nearest neighbor distance).Partly based on observations at European Southern Observatory (ESO),under the ESO-ON agreement to operate the 1.52 m telescope.
| The Host Galaxies of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies: Evidence for Bar-Driven Fueling
We present a study of the host galaxy morphologies of narrow- andbroad-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1's and BLS1's) based on broadbandoptical images from the Hubble Space Telescope archives. We find thatlarge-scale stellar bars, starting at ~1 kpc from the nucleus, are muchmore common in NLS1's than BLS1's. Furthermore, the fraction of NLS1spirals that have bars increases with decreasing full width athalf-maximum of the broad component of Hβ. These results suggest alink between the large-scale bars, which can support high fueling ratesto the inner kiloparsecs, and the high mass accretion rates associatedwith the supermassive black holes in NLS1's.
| Redshift-Distance Survey of Early-Type Galaxies: Circular-Aperture Photometry
We present R-band CCD photometry for 1332 early-type galaxies, observedas part of the ENEAR survey of peculiar motions using early-typegalaxies in the nearby universe. Circular apertures are used to tracethe surface brightness profiles, which are then fitted by atwo-component bulge-disk model. From the fits, we obtain the structuralparameters required to estimate galaxy distances using theDn-σ and fundamental plane relations. We find thatabout 12% of the galaxies are well represented by a pure r1/4law, while 87% are best fitted by a two-component model. There are 356repeated observations of 257 galaxies obtained during different runsthat are used to derive statistical corrections and bring the data to acommon system. We also use these repeated observations to estimate ourinternal errors. The accuracy of our measurements are tested by thecomparison of 354 galaxies in common with other authors. Typical errorsin our measurements are 0.011 dex for logDn, 0.064 dex forlogre, 0.086 mag arcsec-2 for<μe>, and 0.09 for mRC,comparable to those estimated by other authors. The photometric datareported here represent one of the largest high-quality and uniformall-sky samples currently available for early-type galaxies in thenearby universe, especially suitable for peculiar motion studies.Based on observations at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO),National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by theAssociation of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., undercooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF);European Southern Observatory (ESO); Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory(FLWO); and the MDM Observatory on Kitt Peak.
| Star Formation Rates in Interacting Starburst Galaxies
By narrowband imaging in Hα and in the adjacent red stellarcontinuum we have studied the rate and distribution of star formation in43 systems of luminous and ultraluminous IR galaxies currentlyundergoing interaction and merging. These galaxies are amongst the mostluminous at 60 μm and range in distance from ~50 up to 100 Mpc. Herewe present the Hα and the adjacent red-continuum narrowbandimages, and we compare the star formation rates derived from Hαwith those estimated from the IR luminosity. We find clear evidence forsubstantial extinction and obscuration of star-forming regions in theoptical. Without correction for reddening in the host galaxy orcorrection for [N II] contamination, the star formation rates derivedfor Hα are typically 0.5-1.0 dex lower than those estimated fromthe IR flux, and the scatter in the correlation is very large. However,an unexpected result is that when spectroscopic data are used toeliminate objects dominated by an active nucleus, to determine thegalaxian extinction, and to correct the Hα flux for both reddeningand for the contamination by the [N II] emission, a remarkably goodcorrelation emerges between the star formation rates estimated from theHα flux and those derived from the FIR continuum. In addition, astrong correlation is found between the extinction in the line-emittingregion, AHα, and the rate of star formation. Ourresults invalidate the use of Hα imaging as a reliable indicatorof star formation in starburst galaxies unless spectroscopic data arealso available. This has important implications for the determination ofstar formation rates in high-redshift galaxies. Finally, we find nocorrelation between the measured star formation rates, and theinteraction class, suggesting that the enhanced star formation ratestriggered by the interaction continue throughout the whole of themerging sequence.
| Surface photometry of binary galaxies.
Not Available
| Jet Directions in Seyfert Galaxies: B and I Imaging Data
We present the results of broadband B and I imaging observations for asample of 88 Seyfert galaxies (29 Seyfert 1s and 59 Seyfert 2s),selected from a mostly isotropic property, the flux at 60 μm. We alsopresent the B and I imaging results for an additional sample of 20Seyfert galaxies (7 Seyfert 1s and 13 Seyfert 2s), selected from theliterature and known to have extended radio emission. The I-band imagesare fitted with ellipses to determine the position angle and ellipticityof the host galaxy major axis. This information will be used in a futurepaper, combined with information from radio observations, to study theorientation of radio jets relative to the planes of their host galaxies.Here we present surface brightness profiles and magnitudes in the B andI bands, as well as mean ellipticities and major axis position angles.
| A neutral hydrogen survey of polar ring galaxies. III. Nançay observations and comparison with published data
A total of 50 optically selected polar ring galaxies, polar ring galaxycandidates and related objects were observed in the 21-cm H i line withthe Nançay decimetric radio telescope and 31 were detected. Theobjects, selected by their optical morphology, are all north ofdeclination -39o, and generally relatively nearby (V< 8000km s-1) and/or bright (mB< 15.5). The H i linedata are presented for all 74 galaxies observed for the survey with theEffelsberg, Green Bank or Nanç radio telescopes, as well as allother published H i line parameters of these objects. Three objects wereobserved and detected by us at Parkes. A total of 59 objects weredetected. For each object a brief description is given based on aliterature search.
| Radio Structures of Seyfert Galaxies. VIII. A Distance- and Magnitude-Limited Sample of Early-Type Galaxies
The VLA has been used at 3.6 and 20 cm to image a sample of about 50early-type Seyfert galaxies with recessional velocities less than 7000km s^-1 and total visual magnitude less than 14.5. Emission-line ([OIII] and Hα+[N II]) and continuum (green and red) imaging of thissample has been presented in a previous paper. In this paper, we presentthe radio results, discuss statistical relationships between the radioand other properties, and investigate these relationships within thecontext of unified models of Seyferts. The mean radio luminosities ofearly-type Seyfert 1's (i.e., Seyfert 1.0's, 1.2's, and 1.5's) and 2.0'sare found to be similar (consistent with the unified scheme), and theradio luminosity is independent of morphological type within thissample. The fraction of resolved radio sources is larger in the Seyfert2.0's (93%) than in the Seyfert 1's (64%). However, the mean radioextents of Seyfert 2.0's and 1's are not significantly different,although this result is limited by the small number of resolved Seyfert1's. The nuclear radio structures of Seyfert 2.0's in the early-typesample tend to be aligned with the [O III] and Hα+[N II]structures, even though the radio extents are smaller than the [O III]and Hα+[N II] extents by a factor of ~2 to more than 5. Thisalignment, previously known for individual Seyferts with ``linear''radio sources, is here shown to be characteristic of early-type Seyfertgalaxies as a class. Seyfert 2.0's in the early-type sample also show asignificant alignment between the emission-line ([O III] and Hα+[NII]) axes and the major axis of the host galaxy. These alignments areconsistent with a picture in which the ionized gas represents ambientgas predominantly coplanar with the galaxy stellar disk. This ambientgas is ionized by nuclear radiation that may escape preferentially alongand around the radio axis, and is compressed in shocks driven by theradio ejecta. We use this alignment to constrain the product of thevelocity of the radio ejecta and the period of any large-angleprecession of the inner accretion disk and jet: V_ejectaxP>=2 kpc. Aninvestigation of a larger sample of Seyferts reveals the unexpectedresult that the Seyfert 1's with the largest radio extent (>=1.5 kpc)are all of type Seyfert 1.2. It appears that classification as this typeof intermediate Seyfert depends on some factor other than the relativeorientation of the nuclear-obscuring torus to the line of sight. Amongall the other Seyferts, the distribution of radio extent with Seyfertintermediate type is consistent with the expectations of the unifiedscheme.
| The Relative Orientation of Nuclear Accretion and Galaxy Stellar Disks in Seyfert Galaxies
We use the difference (delta) between the position angles of the nuclearradio emission and the host galaxy major axis to investigate thedistribution of the angle (beta) between the axes of the nuclearaccretion disk and the host galaxy disk in Seyfert galaxies. We providea critical appraisal of the quality of all measurements, and find thatthe data are limited by observational uncertainties and biases, such asthe well known deficiency of Seyfert galaxies of high inclination. Thereis weak evidence that the distribution of delta for Seyfert 2 galaxiesmay be different (at the 90% confidence level) from a uniformdistribution, while the Seyfert 1 delta distribution is notsignificantly different from a uniform distribution or from the Seyfert2 delta distribution. The cause of the possible nonuniformity in thedistribution of delta for Seyfert 2 galaxies is discussed. Seyfertnuclei in late-type spiral galaxies may favor large values of delta (atthe ~96% confidence level), while those in early-type galaxies show amore or less random distribution of delta. This may imply that thenuclear accretion disk in noninteracting late-type spirals tends toalign with the stellar disk, while that in early-type galaxies is morerandomly oriented, perhaps as a result of accretion following a galaxymerger. We point out that biases in the distribution of inclinationtranslate to biased estimates of beta in the context of the unifiedscheme. When this effect is taken into account, the distributions ofbeta for all Seyferts together, and of Seyfert 1s and 2s separately,agree with the hypothesis that the radio jets are randomly oriented withrespect to the galaxy disk. The data are consistent with theexpectations of the unified scheme, but do not demand it.
| A Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Survey of Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei
We have obtained WFPC2 images of 256 of the nearest (z <= 0.035)Seyfert 1, Seyfert 2, and starburst galaxies. Our 500 s broadband(F606W) exposures reveal much fine-scale structure in the centers ofthese galaxies, including dust lanes and patches, bars, rings, wisps,and filaments, and tidal features such as warps and tails. Most of thisfine structure cannot be detected in ground-based images. We haveassigned qualitative classifications for these morphological featuresand a Hubble type for the inner region of each galaxy, and we have alsomeasured quantitative information such as 0."18 and 0."92 aperturemagnitudes, position angles, and ellipticities, where possible. There islittle direct evidence for unusually high rates of interaction in theSeyfert galaxies. Slightly less than 10% of all the galaxies show tidalfeatures or multiple nuclei. The incidence of inner starburst rings isabout 10% in both classes of Seyfert galaxies. In contrast, galaxieswith H II region emission-line spectra appear substantially moreirregular and clumpy because of their much higher rates of current starformation per unit of galactic mass. The presence of an unresolvedcentral continuum source in our Hubble Space Telescope images is avirtually perfect indicator of a Seyfert 1 nucleus as seen byground-based spectroscopy. Fifty-two percent of these Seyfert 1 pointsources are saturated in our images; we use their wings to estimatemagnitudes ranging from 15.8 to 18.5. The converse is not universallytrue, however, as over one-third of Seyferts with direct spectroscopicevidence for broad Balmer wings show no nuclear point source. These 34resolved Seyfert 1's have fainter nonstellar nuclei, which appear to bemore extinguished by dust absorption. Like the Seyfert 2's, they havecentral surface brightnesses consistent with those expected for thebulges of normal galaxies. The rates for the occurrences of bars inSeyfert 1's and 2's and non-Seyferts are the same. We found onesignificant morphological difference between the host galaxies ofSeyfert 1 and Seyfert 2 nuclei. The Seyfert 2 galaxies are significantlymore likely to show nuclear dust absorption, especially in lanes andpatches that are irregular or reach close to the nucleus. A few simpletests show that the difference cannot be explained by different averageredshifts or selection techniques. It is confirmed by our galaxymorphology classifications, which show that Seyfert 1 nuclei reside inearlier type galaxies than Seyfert 2 nuclei. If, as we believe, this isan intrinsic difference in host galaxy properties, it undermines one ofthe postulates of the strong unification hypothesis for Seyfertgalaxies, that they merely appear different because of the orientationof their central engine. The excess galactic dust we see in Seyfert 2'smay cause substantial absorption that obscures their hypothesized broademission line regions and central nonstellar continua. This galacticdust could produce much of the absorption in Seyfert 2 nuclei that hadinstead been attributed to a thick dusty accretion torus forming theouter part of the central engine.
| The Southern Sky Redshift Survey
We report redshifts, magnitudes, and morphological classifications for5369 galaxies with m_B <= 15.5 and for 57 galaxies fainter than thislimit, in two regions covering a total of 1.70 sr in the southerncelestial hemisphere. The galaxy catalog is drawn primarily from thelist of nonstellar objects identified in the Hubble Space TelescopeGuide Star Catalog (GSC). The galaxies have positions accurate to ~1"and magnitudes with an rms scatter of ~0.3 mag. We compute magnitudes(m_SSRS2) from the relation between instrumental GSC magnitudes and thephotometry by Lauberts & Valentijn. From a comparison with CCDphotometry, we find that our system is homogeneous across the sky andcorresponds to magnitudes measured at the isophotal level ~26 magarcsec^-2. The precision of the radial velocities is ~40 km s^-1, andthe redshift survey is more than 99% complete to the m_SSRS2 = 15.5 maglimit. This sample is in the direction opposite that of the CfA2; incombination the two surveys provide an important database for studies ofthe properties of galaxies and their large-scale distribution in thenearby universe. Based on observations obtained at Cerro TololoInter-American Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatories,operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy,Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation;Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito, operated under agreement between theConsejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas de laRepública Argentina and the National Universities of La Plata,Córdoba, and San Juan; the European Southern Observatory, LaSilla, Chile, partially under the bilateral ESO-ObservatórioNacional agreement; Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory;Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica, Brazil; and the SouthAfrican Astronomical Observatory.
| On the morphology of peculiar ring galaxies
It is proposed that peculiar ring galaxies can be divided into fiveprincipal types according to the morphology of the ring and bulge, basedon the visual inspection of 489 selected objects. Those objects havebeen named ``peculiar'' following the ``Catalogue of Southern PeculiarGalaxies and Associations'' by \cite[Arp & Madore (1986]{am6}) Table2 with its notes is only available electronically via anonymous ftp130.79.128.5 or http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr.
| Total magnitude, radius, colour indices, colour gradients and photometric type of galaxies
We present a catalogue of aperture photometry of galaxies, in UBVRI,assembled from three different origins: (i) an update of the catalogueof Buta et al. (1995) (ii) published photometric profiles and (iii)aperture photometry performed on CCD images. We explored different setsof growth curves to fit these data: (i) The Sersic law, (ii) The net ofgrowth curves used for the preparation of the RC3 and (iii) A linearinterpolation between the de Vaucouleurs (r(1/4) ) and exponential laws.Finally we adopted the latter solution. Fitting these growth curves, wederive (1) the total magnitude, (2) the effective radius, (3) the colourindices and (4) gradients and (5) the photometric type of 5169 galaxies.The photometric type is defined to statistically match the revisedmorphologic type and parametrizes the shape of the growth curve. It iscoded from -9, for very concentrated galaxies, to +10, for diffusegalaxies. Based in part on observations collected at the Haute-ProvenceObservatory.
| A Survey for H 2O Megamasers in Active Galactic Nuclei. II. A Comparison of Detected and Undetected Galaxies
A survey for H2O megamaser emission from 354 active galaxies hasresulted in the detection of 10 new sources, making 16 known altogether.The galaxies surveyed include a distance-limited sample (coveringSeyferts and LINERs with recession velocities less than 7000 km s-1) anda magnitude-limited sample (covering Seyferts and LINERs with mB <=14.5). In order to determine whether the H2O-detected galaxies are"typical" active galactic nuclei (AGNs) or have special properties thatfacilitate the production of powerful masers, we have accumulated adatabase of physical, morphological, and spectroscopic properties of theobserved galaxies. The most significant finding is that H2O megamasersare detected only in Seyfert 2 and LINER galaxies, not Seyfert 1's. Thislack of detection in Seyfert 1's indicates either that they do not havemolecular gas in their nuclei with physical conditions appropriate toproduce 1.3 cm H2O masers or that the masers are beamed away from Earth,presumably in the plane of the putative molecular torus that hides theSeyfert 1 nucleus in Seyfert 2's. LINERs are detected at a similar rateto Seyfert 2's, which constitutes a strong argument that at least somenuclear LINERs are AGNs rather than starbursts, since starbursts havenot been detected as H2O megamasers. We preferentially detect H2Oemission from the nearer galaxies and from those that are apparentlybrighter at mid- and far-infrared and centimeter radio wavelengths.There is also a possible trend for the H2O-detected galaxies to be moreintrinsically luminous in nuclear 6 cm radio emission than theundetected ones, though these data are incomplete. We find evidence thatSeyfert 2's with very high (NH > 1024 cm-2) X-ray--absorbing columnsof gas are more often detected as H2O maser emitters than Seyfert 2'swith lower columns. It may be that the probability of detecting H2Omaser emission in Seyfert galaxies increases with increasing column ofcool gas to the nucleus, from Seyfert 1's through narrow-line X-raygalaxies to Seyfert 2's.
| An HI survey of polar ring galaxies. II. The Effelsberg sample.
We present the results of a neutral hydrogen survey conducted with the100-m radiotelescope at Effelsberg of 44 northern objects in thepolar-ring galaxy atlas of Whitmore et al. (1990AJ....100.1489W). Theseobservations were performed to complement the Green Bank observations ofpolar-ring galaxies (Paper I, 1994AJ....107...99R). We detected 29 ofthese above our detection limit of a few mJy. The relative content ofneutral hydrogen (M_HI_/L_B_) of the early-type galaxies (E, S0) in thissample is significantly higher than for galaxies of the samemorphological types from comparison samples, i.e. for ellipticalgalaxies M_HI_/L_B_=0.17+/-0.09 and for S0 galaxiesM_HI_/L_B_=0.75+/-0.13 which is about 6 times the mean value from thecomparison samples for the same morphological types.
| An Emission-Line Imaging Survey of Early-Type Seyfert Galaxies. I. The Observations
Flux-calibrated images in the lines of [O III] λ5007 and Hα+ [N II] λλ6548, 6583 and the nearby continuum arepresented for 57 Seyfert galaxies of early morphological type. Thissample includes all known Seyfert galaxies with apparent magnitude m_v_<= 14.5 and recessional velocity cz < 7000 km s^-1^ in Hubbletypes E, S0, and S0/a. Images are also presented for an additional 26galaxies with m_v_ > 14.5, cz > 7000 km s^-1^, and/or an uncertainclassification as a Seyfert galaxy. The ratio of the [O III]λ5007 to the Hα + [N II] image has been obtained for eachgalaxy with extended emission to study the spatial variation of thegaseous excitation. Maps of the V - R color distributions over thegalaxies are also presented.
| Seyfert Galaxies With Companions: Orbital and Kinematic Clues to AGN Triggering
This paper presents imaging and optical spectroscopy of paired Seyfertgalaxies and their companions. The aim is to seek common properties ofSeyfert galaxies in interacting systems, which might provide evidence ofAGN triggering in a way independent of the usual two-sample statisticswhich have proven ambiguous on this issue. Three kinds of comparisonhave been made-the kinds of interactions involving Seyfert galaxies, therelative luminosities of the Seyferts and their companions, and thelevel of kinematic disturbance as measured from rotation curves. (1)Dynamics and tidal features have been used to determine (or at leastlimit) the sense of orbital motion (direct/retrograde/polar with respectto the Seyfert galaxy's disk) for many of these pairs. There is noobviously preferred kind of interaction-direct, polar, and retrogradeencounters are all well represented, despite the gross differences indynamical response of a disk to these various kinds of encounter. To theextent that triggering of Seyfert nuclei occurs due to tidal encounters,the existence of a perturbation seems more important than its exactduration or detailed effects on the disk. However, the ratio of mergingto paired Seyferts is higher than for disk galaxies in general,consistent with more effective triggering of AGN in this specific phase;the implied time scale for enhanced occurrence during mergers is thesame as the timescape for merger remnants to appear as such, a fewdisk-edge crossing times (typically several times 10^8^ yr). (2) Seyfertnuclei occur preferentially in the brighter members of galaxy pairs, bya median of 0.93 mag after making the maximal correction forcontaminating nonstellar light in the nuclei. Only about 1/3 of thiseffect can be accounted for by the known tendency of Seyfert nuclei tooccur in more luminous galaxies. Enhancement of AGN by interactions isevidently more effective for more luminous galaxies (though this willalso be the case if both star formation and AGN occurrence are enhancedin the same galaxies). (3) The rotation curves of the paired Seyfertsshow systematically small regions of rising or solid-body rotationcompared to the disk radius, as a group comparable to Sa but verydifferent from Sb or Sc galaxies (even for Seyfert galaxies with Hubbletype later than Sa). There is weak evidence that this difference is alsopresent with respect to more isolated Seyfert galaxies. Despite theobvious utility of a dynamically disturbed disk for transport of angularmomentum and "feeding the monster," Seyfert galaxies in pairs actuallyhave smaller kinematic disturbances (measured by the maximum departurefrom a symmetric rotation curve, normalized to the full rotationamplitude) than found in a complete sample of non-Seyfert spirals inpairs.
| Candidates for a southern extension of the Karachentsev catalogue of isolated pairs of galaxies.
Not Available
| The Catalog of Southern Ringed Galaxies
The Catalog of Southern Ringed Galaxies (CSRG) is a comprehensivecompilation of diameters, axis ratios, relative bar position angles, andmorphologies of inner and outer rings, pseudorings, and lenses in 3692galaxies south of declination -17 deg. The purpose of the catalog is toevaluate the idea that these ring phenomena are related to orbitalresonances with a bar or oval in galaxy potentials. The catalog is basedon visual inspection of most of the 606 fields of the Science ResearchCouncil (SRC) IIIa-J southern sky survey, with the ESO-B, ESO-R, andPalomar Sky surveys used as auxiliaries when needed for overexposed coreregions. The catalog is most complete for SRC fields 1-303 (mostly southof declination -42 deg). In addition to ringed galaxies, a list of 859mostly nonringed galaxies intended for comparison with other catalogs isprovided. Other findings from the CSRG that are not based on statisticsare the identification of intrinsic bar/ring misalignment; bars whichunderfill inner rings; dimpling of R'1pseudorings; pointy, rectangular, or hexagonal inner or outer ringshapes; a peculiar polar-ring-related system; and other extreme examplesof spiral structure and ring morphology.
| An Alignment between Optical Continuum and Emission-Line Structures in the Circumnuclear Regions of Seyfert Galaxies
We compare the emission-line and optical continuum axes in a sample of29 Seyfert galaxies. We find a strong trend for the [O III] lambda5007--emitting gas to align with the continuum on a scale of severalarcseconds (hundreds of parsecs). This trend is observed for bothSeyfert types. There is no alignment, however, between the small-scaleemission-line axis and the overall orientation of the host galaxy. Weinvestigate several explanations for the alignment of the [O III] lambda5007 emission with the continuum on small scales, including thepossibility that the featureless continuum is extended in Seyfertgalaxies. An extended featureless continuum component in Seyfertgalaxies might solve several outstanding problems in currently popularunified models.
| Total and effective colors of 501 galaxies in the Cousins VRI photometric system
Total color indices (V-R)T, (V-I)T and effectivecolor indices (V-R)e, (V-I)e in the Cousins VRIphotometric system are presented for 501 mostly normal galaxies. Thecolors are computed using a procedure outlined in the Third ReferenceCatalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC3) whereby standard color curvesapproximated by Laplace-Gauss integrals are fitted to observedphotoelectric multiaperture photometry. 11 sources of such photometrywere used for our analysis, each source being assigned an appropriateweight according to a rigorous analysis of residuals of the data fromthe best-fitting standard color curves. Together with the integrated B-Vand U-B colors provided in RC3, our analysis widens the range ofwavelength of homogeneously defined colors of normal galaxies of allHubble types. We present color-color and color-type relations that canbe modeled to understand the star formation history of galaxies.
| A neutral hydrogen survey of polar-ring galaxies, 1: Green Bank observations of the northern sample
We present the results of a neutral hydrogen survey conducted with theGreen Bank 140 foot radio telescope of 47 northern objects in thepolar-ring galaxy atlas of Whitmore et al. (1990). We detected 39 ofthese above our detection limit of 1.7 Jy km/s; the average measuredflux of 21 Jy km/s corresponds to an average neutral hydrogen mass of5.3 x 109 solar mass for a Hubble constant ofHzero = 75 km/s/Mpc. For the polar-ring galaxies in oursample that have also been observed with radio arrays, we find that the21 full width at half maximum (FWHM) Green Bank beam often includes muchmore flux than found by the synthesis instruments for the polar ringsalone; some of these galaxies are known to have gas-rich companions. Wecompare the neutral hydrogen content of the sample to the blueluminosity and Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) fluxes. The HI-mass-to-blue-light ratios of the confirmed and probable polar ringsare around unity in solar units, indicating that polar-ring galaxies (ortheir environments) are as gas-rich as typical irregular galaxies. Fortheir blue luminosity, the confirmed polar rings are underluminous inthe far infrared, as compared with the rest of the sample. They are alsofar infrared (FIR) underluminous for their H I masses, which suggeststhat most of the gas in the ring may be in stable orbits, rather thanflowing inward to trigger star formation in the central galaxy. The moredisordered class of 'related objects,' which includes a number ofobvious mergers, is highly luminous in the far infrared. Detailed notesfor each galaxy, including information about companions within the GB140 min beam that may contribute to the total H I line integral and itswidth, are contained in the Appendix.
| Southern Sky Redshift Survey - The catalog
The catalog of radial velocities for galaxies which comprise thediameter-limited sample of the Southern Sky Redshift Survey ispresented. It consolidates the data of observations carried out at theLas Campanas Observatory, Observatorio Nacional, and South AfricanAstronomical Observatory. The criteria used for the sample selection aredescribed, as well as the observational procedures and the techniqueutilized to obtain the final radial velocities. The intercomparisonbetween radial velocity measurements from different telescopes indicatesthat the final data base is fairly homogeneous with a typical error ofabout 40 km/s. The sample is at present 90 percent complete, and themissing galaxies are predominantly objects with very low surfacebrightness for which it is very difficult to obtain optical redshifts.
| An optical catalog of extragalactic emission-line objects similar to quasi-stellar objects
A catalog of 935 galaxies which have optical properties similar to thoseof QSOs is given. A subsidiary table of cross-identifications enablesthe reader to relate the name of a given object to its coordinate name.Most of the objects appear to be nonstellar. The majority, more than700, have redshifts z = 0.2 or less, and have mostly been classified asSeyfert galaxies, N systems, or radio galaxies. The Hubble diagram forall of the objects with z = 0.2 or less is shown. The redshiftdistribution peaks at z = 0.025, but there are about 200 powerful radiogalaxies in the extended tail of the distribution which have z greaterthan 0.2. There is a separate and distinct peak in the redshiftdistribution at z = 0.06.
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