Analyzing Jet-Cloud Collisions - Do they tell us about Jets or Clouds?

Roughly 3-10% of the "giant" galaxies are AGNs and ~10% of the AGNs are strong radio galaxies. Although both radio loud and radio quiet AGNs have very similar optical spectra, superficial analysis of the host galaxies seems to show that strong radio galaxies are "ellipticals" and other AGNs reside in "spirals." However, closer examination suggests that there is a morphological continuum ranging from non-radio AGNs in spirals with large bulges to strong radio AGNs in hosts with small, central gas disks embedded in bulge-like "E" galaxies. Thus a better understanding of radio jets may well provide clues to the mechanism which drives the central energy source in all AGNs (including QSOs). This talk will concentrate on the information which can be obtained from optical spectroscopy about the relationship between the radio jets, the central source, and the gas disks in the centers of radio-AGN hosts. Although only a few nearby objects have been studied in much detail, higher resolution optical instruments may provide a large enough set of measurements to allow us to distinguish between jet-induced effects in the host interstellar medium and those induced by ionizing radiation from the central source.