We explore the connection between the black hole mass and its relativistic jet for a sample of radio-loud AGN (z < 1), in which the relativistic jet parameters are well estimated by means of long term monitoring with the 14m Metsahovi millimeter wave
telescope and the Very Long Base-line Array (VLBA). NIR host galaxy images taken with the NOTCam on the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) and retrieved from the 2MASS all-sky survey allowed us to perform a detailed surface brightness decomposition of the host galaxies in our sample and to estimate reliable black hole masses via their bulge luminosities. We present early results on the correlations between black hole mass and the relativistic jet parameters. Our preliminary results suggest that the more massive the black hole is, the faster and the more luminous jet it produces.
We present a follow-up study on a series of papers concerning the role of close interactions as a possible triggering mechanism of AGN activity. We have already studied the close (<100kpc/h) and the large scale (<1 Mpc/h) environment of a local sampl
e of Sy1, Sy2 and bright IRAS galaxies (BIRG) and their respective control samples. The results led us to the conclusion that a close encounter appears capable of activating a sequence where an absorption line galaxy (ALG) galaxy becomes first a starburst, then a Sy2 and finally a Sy1. Here we investigate the activity of neighboring galaxies of different types of AGN, since both galaxies of an interacting pair should be affected. To this end we present the optical spectroscopy and X-ray imaging of 30 neighbouring galaxies around two local (z<0.034) samples of 10 Sy1 and 13 Sy2 galaxies. Based on the optical spectroscopy we find that more than 70% of all neighbouring galaxies exhibit star forming and/or nuclear activity (namely recent star formation and/or AGN), while an additional X-ray analysis showed that this percentage might be significantly higher. Furthermore, we find a statistically significant correlation, at a 99.9% level, between the value of the neighbours [OIII]/Hbeta ratio and the activity type of the central active galaxy, i.e. the neighbours of Sy2 galaxies are systematically more ionized than the neighbours of Sy1s. This result, in combination with trends found using the Equivalent Width of the Halpha emission line and the stellar population synthesis code STARLIGHT, indicate differences in the stellar mass, metallicity and star formation history between the samples. Our results point towards a link between close galaxy interactions and activity and also provide more clues regarding the possible evolutionary sequence inferred by our previous studies.
