Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 December 2004
We have compared galaxies hosting an active nucleus with non-active galaxies in the SDSS by analyzing their stellar populations. We conclude that the Seyfert 2 phenomenon appears in galaxies of intermediate masses (∼2 × 1010 M$_\odot$), while low mass galaxies do not produce active nuclei, and high mass galaxies tend to produce a low level of non-stellar activity. We also compared the environment of active and non-active galaxies of similar masses and concluded that there is no excess of close neighbors among the Seyferts when compared with non-active galaxies.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html