We present a three-dimensional study of the local ( \leq 100 h ^ { -1 } kpc ) and the large scale ( \leq 1 h ^ { -1 } Mpc ) environment of the two main types of Seyfert AGN galaxies .
For this purpose we use 48 Sy1 galaxies ( with redshifts in the range 0.007 \leq z \leq 0.036 ) and 56 Sy2 galaxies ( with 0.004 \leq z \leq 0.020 ) , located at high galactic latitudes , as well as two control samples of non-active galaxies having the same morphological , redshift , and diameter size distributions as the corresponding Seyfert samples .
Using the Center for Astrophysics ( CfA2 ) and Southern Sky Redshift Survey ( SSRS ) galaxy catalogues ( m _ { B } \sim 15.5 ) and our own spectroscopic observations ( m _ { B } \sim 18.5 ) , we find that within a projected distance of 100 h ^ { -1 } kpc and a radial velocity separation of \delta v \raise - 3.0 pt \hbox { \hbox to 0.0 pt { \hbox { $ \sim$ } } \raise 4.0 pt \hbox { $ < $ } % } 600 km/sec around each of our AGNs , the fraction of Seyfert 2 galaxies with a close neighbor is significantly higher than that of their control ( especially within 75 h ^ { -1 } kpc ) and Seyfert 1 galaxy samples , confirming a previous 2-dimensional analysis of Dultzin-Hacyan et al .
We also find that the large-scale environment around the two types of Seyfert galaxies does not vary with respect to their control sample galaxies .
However , in the Seyfert 2 and control galaxy samples do differ significantly when compared to the corresponding Seyfert 1 samples .
Since the main difference between these samples is their morphological type distribution , we argue that the large-scale environmental difference can not be attributed to differences in nuclear activity but rather to their different type of host galaxies .