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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2017
Direct imaging of Seyfert galaxies in emission lines and high resolution radio mapping often show their narrow line regions and linear (double or jet-like) radio sources to be aligned on the hundreds of parsecs scale. This relationship is unlikely to reflect ionization of the thermal gas by the expanding radio components or by their relativistic electrons. The most likely explanation, which is also favored by optical polarization measurements, is that ionizing photons escape preferentially along the rotation axis of the same inner (≲ pc scale) disk as collimates the radio jet. Such a bipolar form may be the most common morphology of the narrow line region. Differences of radio properties between Seyfert type 1's and 2's may be at least partially related to aspect effects. The north east radio lobe of NGC 1068 shows a limb-brightened, conical structure with the magnetic field running parallel to the edge of the cone. This source is modelled in terms of a radiative bow shock wave being driven into the interstellar medium of the galaxy by the radio ejecta. If the pre-shock density is as high as 400 cm−3, as suggested by CO measurements, the shock velocity is found to be ≃ 75 km s−1 and the jet velocity ≃ 4000 km s−1, the latter being close to the emission line widths. The narrow line region in this galaxy is morphologically and kinematically associated with the jet.