No CrossRef data available.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2016
We present the first neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) gas images of QSO host galaxies. The results come from our ongoing survey of all twenty-three QSOs at redshifts z < 0.07 visible from the VLA. Our images show tidal interactions in all of the QSO host galaxies detected in HI, even when no such interactions are clearly visible in the optical. The results are not consistent with the suggestion by Sanders et al. (1988a, 1988b) that ultraluminous infrared galaxies, the vast majority of which are later-stage mergers, are the parent population of a significant fraction of radio-quiet QSOs. Instead, our results suggest that QSOs reside in a wide variety of interacting environments.