The Radio Structure of the Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Mrk 783 with VLBA and e-MERLIN

TL;DR

This study uses VLBA and e-MERLIN radio observations to analyze the nuclear structure of the Seyfert galaxy Mrk 783, revealing a pc-scale jet and complex radio morphology linked to recent galaxy merging.

Contribution

First detailed VLBA and e-MERLIN radio imaging of Mrk 783, identifying a pc-scale jet and exploring the misalignment between different radio structures.

Findings

Detection of unresolved core at 1.6 GHz and resolved structure at 5 GHz

Brightness temperature indicates a pc-scale jet from the AGN

Galaxy shows signs of recent merging activity

Abstract

In this paper, we present the analysis of new radio and optical observations of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 783. 1.6 GHz observations performed with the e-MERLIN interferometer confirm the presence of the diffuse emission previously observed. The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) also detects the nuclear source both at 1.6 GHz (L-Band) and 5 GHz (C-band). While the L-band image shows only an unresolved core, the C-band image shows the presence of a partially resolved structure, at a position angle of 60{\deg}. The brightness temperature of the emission in both bands ($>10^6$ K) suggests that it is a pc-scale jet produced by the AGN. The relatively steep VLBA spectral index ($\alpha_{VLBA} = 0.63\pm0.03$) is consistent with the presence of optically thin emission on milliarcsecond scales. Finally, we investigated two possible scenarios that can result in the misalignment between the kpc and pc-scale radio structure detected in the galaxy. We also analysed the optical morphology of the galaxy, which suggests that Mrk 783 underwent a merging in relatively recent times.