The compact radio structure of radio‐loud NLS1 galaxies and the relationship to CSS sources

Abstract

AbstractNarrow‐line Seyfert 1 galaxies are thought to be young AGNs with relatively small black hole masses and high accretion rates. Radio‐loud narrow‐line Seyfert 1 galaxies (RLNLS1s) are very special, because some of them show blazar‐like characteristics, while others resemble compact steep‐spectrum sources. Relativistic jets were shown to exist in a few RLNLS1s based on VLBI observations and confirmed by the gamma‐ray flaring of some of them. These properties may possibly be contrary to typical radio‐loud AGNs, in light of the low black‐hole masses, and high accretion rates. We present the compact radio structure of fourteen RLNLS1 galaxies from Very Long Baseline Array observations at 5 GHz in 2013. Although all these sources are very radio‐loud with R > 100, their jet properties are diverse, in terms of their milliarcsecond (mas) scale (pc scale) morphology and their overall radio spectral shape. The core brightness temperatures of our sources are significantly lower than those of blazars, therefore, the beaming effect is generally not significant in our sources, compared to blazars. This implies that the bulk jet speed may likely be low in our sources. The relationship between RLNLS1s and compact steep‐spectrum sources, and the implications on jet formation are discussed based on the pc‐scale jet properties. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)