Abstract
We investigate the kinematic properties of the stars and ionised gas in the circumnuclear regions of a matched sample of Seyfert and non-active galaxies, using the SAURON Integral-Field Unit (IFU) on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT). The stellar velocity fields present regular rotation patterns. After removal of the non-gravitational components due to e.g. AGN-driven outflows, the ionised gas kinematics are dominated by rotation. The non-active galaxies present global alignment between stellar and gaseous components while a majority of the Seyfert galaxies present strong kinematic misalignments. A more refined analysis of our two-dimensional kinematic maps reveal evidence for deviations from axial-symmetry in the gaseous velocity fields, these deviations being stronger in the case of Seyfert galaxies than the associated non-active galaxies. This suggests the presence of weak dynamical perturbations in the circumnuclear regions of Seyfert galaxies and provides a tentative link between host galaxy dynamics in these regions and the nuclear activity.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2007 |
| Editors | J. Bouvier, A. Chalabaev, C. Charbonnel |
| Pages | 332 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2007 |
| Event | Annual Meeting of the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics - Grenoble, France Duration: 2 Jul 2007 → 6 Jul 2007 |
Other
| Other | Annual Meeting of the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics |
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| Country | France |
| City | Grenoble |
| Period | 2/07/07 → 6/07/07 |