An Investigation into the Geometry of Seyfert Galaxies

We present a new method for the statistical investigation into thedistributions of the angle beta between the radio axis and the normal to thegalactic disk for a sample of Seyfert galaxies. We discuss how furtherobservations of the sample galaxies can strengthen the conclusions. Our dataare consistent with the hypothesis that AGN jets are oriented randomly inspace, independent of the position of the plane of the galaxy. By making thesimple assumption that the Standard Model of AGN holds, with a universalopening angle of the thick torus of phi_c, we demonstrate a statistical methodto obtain an estimate of phi_c. Our data are not consistent with thesimple-minded idea that Seyfert 1s and Seyfert 2s are differentiated solely bywhether or not our line of sight lies within some fixed angle of the jet axis.Our result is significant on the 2 sigma level and can thus be considered onlysuggestive, not conclusive. A complete sample of Seyfert galaxies selected onan isotropic property is required to obtain a conclusive result.Comment: 13 pages, Tex, 5 Postscript figures. Accepted Ap