A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Jetted narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies breaking the jet paradigm: A comprehensive study of host-galaxy morphologies




AuthorsVarglund I, Järvelä E, Lähteenmäki A, Berton M, Ciroi S, Congiu E

PublisherEDP SCIENCES S A

Publication year2022

Journal:Astronomy and Astrophysics

Journal name in sourceASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS

Journal acronymASTRON ASTROPHYS

Article number A91

Volume668

Number of pages22

ISSN0004-6361

eISSN1432-0746

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202244465

Web address https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202244465

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/178555905


Abstract

Narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies are unevolved active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that exist predominantly in spiral galaxies. However, mostly due to the small number of sources studied, it has been under debate whether also the hosts of jetted NLS1 galaxies, a particular subclass of these sources hosting a relativistic jet, are disk-like or elliptical, as the hosts of more powerful jetted AGNs. We studied the host morphologies of 14 NLS1 galaxies, 11 of which have been detected at 37 GHz, indicating that these sources harbour relativistic jets. The J- and Ks-band data used in this study were obtained with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT). We performed the photometric decomposition of the host galaxy using the band that gave a better fit and additionally created colour maps of all sources that had both a J- and a Ks-band observation. We were able to successfully model 12 sources, nine of which most likely have disk-like morphologies. Of the remaining sources, one source could possibly be hosted either in a disk-like or a dwarf galaxy, and in two cases the results are inconclusive. Only one of our sources shows clear signs of interaction, but the colour maps of most of our sources hint at ample dust in the nuclei, possibly indicating earlier minor mergers, which can go unnoticed due to the limited resolution of these observations. Our results further support disk-like galaxies as the predominant host type of jetted NLS1 galaxies. Most importantly, with the number of modelled hosts of jetted NLS1s now exceeding 50, with only a few elliptical hosts, it seems to be safe to conclude that also disk-like galaxies are able to launch and maintain relativistic jets, and that the traditional jet paradigm stating that only massive elliptical galaxies are capable of hosting relativistic jets is severely outdated.


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