A Comparison of Radio Axis with Host Galaxy Plane Axis in Seyfert Galaxies

We use the radio axis as an indicator of the orientation of the obscuringtorus in Seyfert galaxies, and analyze the difference between the positionangles of extended radio structures and host galaxy major axis of Seyfert 1 andSeyfert 2 galaxies. We find that Seyfert 1's are less likely to have extendedradio structures along the host galaxy major axis, while Seyfert 2's have thesestructures distributed in most directions. We also find a zone of avoidance inthe distribution of position angles; both Seyfert 1's and Seyfert 2's seem toavoid close alignment between the radio axis and the host galaxy plane axis.These results are analyzed from the point of view of a model in which Seyfert1's have their obscuring torus axis aligned preferentially along the hostgalaxy disk axis, and Seyfert 2's have their torus axis laying at anintermediate angle between the galaxy disk and its axis.Comment: 9 pages of text, 10 figures and 1 table. Accepted for publication in the Ap