Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the CfA Seyfert 2 Galaxies: Near-Infrared Surface Photometry and Nuclear Bars

摘要

We present near-infrared J and H surface photometry of 24 of the nearby Seyfert 1.8, 1.9, and 2 gal- axies from the CfA Seyfert sample. The excellent angular resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope probes spatial scales as small as tens of parsecs in most of these active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and is sensitive to the presence of nuclear bars and other potential signatures of the AGN fueling process that channels host galaxy gas and dust to the nuclear region. We have used elliptical isophote techniques to search for nuclear bars in all of these galaxies and have employed a two-dimensional fitting technique to model the nuclear point source and surface brightness distribution of a bright subsample of these gal- axies in an attempt to alleviate the impact of the nuclear point source on our sensitivity to nuclear bars.