NICMOS Observations of Low-Redshift Quasar Host Galaxies

Abstract

We have obtained Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer images of 16 radio-quiet quasars observed as part of a project to investigate the ``luminosity/host-mass limit.'' The limit results were presented in a paper by McLeod, Rieke, & Storrie-Lombardi. In this paper, we present the images themselves, along with one- and two-dimensional analyses of the host galaxy properties. We find that our model-independent one-dimensional technique is reliable for use on ground-based data at low redshifts; that many radio-quiet quasars live in de Vaucouleurs-law hosts, although some of the techniques used to determine host type are questionable; that complex structure is found in many of the hosts, but that there are some hosts that are very smooth and symmetric; and that the nuclei radiate at ~2%-20% of the Eddington rate based on the assumption that all galaxies have central black holes with a constant mass fraction of 0.6%. Despite targeting hard-to-resolve hosts, we have failed to find any that imply super-Eddington accretion rates.