Most bulge-dominated galaxies host a supermassive black hole and yet ongoing nuclear activity is observed in only ~5% of nearby galaxies. Reignition of dormant black holes is therefore required and a key unanswered question is whether the ignition mechanism is related to the galaxy host properties, in particular the fuel transportation mechanisms. The nuclear activity in distant and luminous quasars is related to galaxy interactions and the high-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGN) are found in giant elliptical galaxies associated with past mergers of lower mass galaxies. In contrast, the low-luminosity AGN, such as the Seyfert galaxies, are not found preferentially in interacting systems or in barred galaxies and fuelling these low-luminosity AGN remains an unsolved problem. Recent results suggest the presence of identifiable dynamical differences between Seyfert and intive galaxies in the central kpc regions. Probing the dynamics of Seyfert galaxies requires spectroscopic data and integral-field spectroscopy (IFS) is particularly well-suited to the investigation of complex structures of nearby galaxies. A comprehensive and statistically-significant study of the neutral gas, ionised gas and stellar kinematics of a well-defined distance-limited sample of Seyfert galaxies paired with control inactive galaxies with carefully matched optical properties was then initiated, using the VLA and the AURON integral field unit (IFU).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:494047 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Dumas, Gaëlle |
| Publisher | Liverpool John Moores University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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