NEAR-INFRARED IMAGING OF CFA SEYFERT-GALAXIES

We present near-IR images of 43 Seyfert galaxies from the CfA Seyfert sample. The near-IR luminosity is a good tracer of luminous mass in th ese galaxies. Most of the Seyfert nuclei are found in hosts of mass si milar to that of L galaxies and ranging in type from S0 to Sc. In add ition, there is a population of low-mass host galaxies with very low l uminosity Seyfert nuclei. We have examined our images for signs of per turbations that could drive fuel toward the galaxy nucleus, but there are none we can identify at a significant level. The critical element for fueling is evidently not reflected clearly in the large-scale dist ribution of luminous mass in the galaxy. The Seyfert hosts are compare d with a sample of 50 low-redshift quasar host galaxies we have also i maged. The radio-quiet quasars and the Seyfert nuclei lie in similar k inds of galaxies spanning the same range of mass centered around L. H owever, for the most luminous quasars, there is a correlation between the minimum host-galaxy mass and the luminosity of the active nucleus. Radio-loud quasars are generally found in hosts more massive than an L galaxy. The low-luminosity quasars and the Seyfert nuclei both tend to lie in host galaxies seen preferentially face-on, which suggests t hat there is a substantial amount of obscuration coplanar with the gal axian disk. The obscuration must be geometrically thick (thickness-to- radius ratio approximately 1) and must cover a significant fraction of the narrow-line region (r > 100 pc).