The host galaxies of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies: Evidence for bar-driven fueling

We present a study of the host galaxy morphologies of narrow- and broad-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1's and BLS1's) based on broadband optical images from the Hubble Space Telescope archives. We find that large-scale stellar bars, starting at similar to1 kpc from the nucleus, are much more common in NLS1's than BLS1's. Furthermore, the fraction of NLS1 spirals that have bars increases with decreasing full width at half-maximum of the broad component of Hbeta. These results suggest a link between the large-scale bars, which can support high fueling rates to the inner kiloparsecs, and the high mass accretion rates associated with the supermassive black holes in NLS1's.