A Panchromatic View of Relativistic Jets in Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies

TL;DR

This paper investigates gamma-ray emitting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies, revealing their relativistic jets and comparing their properties to blazars, thus expanding understanding of AGN jet formation in spiral-hosted galaxies.

Contribution

It provides a systematic analysis of gamma-ray properties of radio-loud NLSy1 galaxies using 7 years of Fermi-LAT data, including new detections and multiwavelength insights.

Findings

Detection of new gamma-ray emitting NLSy1 galaxies.

Radio-to-VHE properties consistent with blazar-like jets.

Host galaxy and black hole mass analysis supports jet unification models.

Abstract

The discovery by the Large Area Telescope on board Fermi of variable gamma-ray emission from radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLSy1) galaxies revealed the presence of a possible third class of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) with relativistic jets in addition to blazars and radio galaxies. Considering that NLSy1 are usually hosted in spiral galaxies, this finding poses intriguing questions about the nature of these objects and the formation of relativistic jets. We report on a systematic investigation of the gamma-ray properties of a sample of radio-loud NLSy1, including the detection of new objects, using 7 years of Fermi-LAT data with the new Pass 8 event-level analysis. In addition we discuss the radio-to-very-high-energy properties of the gamma-ray emitting NLSy1, their host galaxy, and black hole mass in the context of the blazar scenario and the unification of relativistic jets at different scales.