The Host Galaxies of Three Radio‐loud Quasars: 3C 48, 3C 345, and B2 1425+267

Abstract

Observations with the Wide-Field/Planetary Camera-2 of the Hubble Space T elescope are presented for three radio-loud quasars : 3C 48 (z \ 0.367), B2 1425]267 (z \ 0.366), and 3C 345 (z \ 0.594). All three quasars have luminous (D4 ] L*) galaxies as hosts, which are either elliptical (B2 1425]267 and 3C345) or interacting (3C 48), and all hosts are 0.5È1.0 mag bluer in V [I than other galaxies with the same overall morphology at redshifts similar to those of the quasars. The host of 3C 48 has many H II regions and a very extended tidal tail. All nine of the radio-loud quasars studied here and in a previous paper by Bahcall et al. either have bright elliptical hosts or occur in interacting systems. There is a robust correlation between the radio emission of the quasar and the luminosity of host galaxy ; the radio-loud quasars reside in galaxies that are on average D1 mag brighter than hosts of the radio-quiet quasars.