A Comment on the Seyfert Environment

Abstract

The study on the Seyfert environment has been of considerable interest lately, since it is believed that the tidal force of a close companian may drive gas into the inner region and either fuel nuclear activity directly or lead to starbursts (Toomre et al., 1972, Byrd, 1987). Many authors noticed an excess of Seyfert among close pairs of galaxies (Adams, 1977, Kennicutt et al., 1984, Keel et al., 1984, Dahari, 1984, 1985 a, b). In a recent paper of ours (Chen and Zou, 1986), a neighborhood statistical study has been done for the galaxies in CfA sample (Huchra et al., 1983), and it is found that the fraction of Seyferts is 3 times higher than the average one, if the distances between them and its nearest neighbors are less than 20 kpc. The result would strengthen the opinion that the existance of close companian is a favourable environment to trigger Seyfert activities.