VLBI Imaging of Seyfert Galaxies

Abstract

The advent of the Very Long Baseline Array and its phase-referencing capability have enabled milliarcsecond-scale imaging of radio sources at sub-millijansky sensitivity, opening the door to high-resolution imaging of Seyfert galaxies. Over the last few years, this has led to a number of interesting new results that shed light on the characteristics of the inner cores of Seyfert galaxies. These include the following: (1) classical Seyfert galaxies with steep radio spectra have a strong tendency to exhibit radio jets at milliarcsecond scales, sometimes with considerable curvature in the jets; (2) apparent speeds of jets imaged at multiple epochs generally are considerably less than c, often in the vicinity of 0.1c or less, although there sometimes are faster motions seen after strong outbursts; and (3) lower luminosity Seyfert galaxies have a much stronger tendency to show flat or somewhat inverted radio spectra, usually are unresolved on milliarcsecond scales, and probably are dominated by a combination of low-radiative-efficiency accretion flows and very compact radio jets. This paper discusses some examples that illustrate these properties, and summarizes some of what we have learned about weak active galaxies on milliarcsecond scales.