A qualitative test of a unified model of Seyfert galaxies with BeppoSAX Original Research Article

The broad band 0.1–200 keV spectra of a sample of 5 Seyfert 2 galaxies (NGC 7172, Mkn 3, NGC 2110, NGC 4507 and NGC 7674) have been measured within the first year of the BeppoSAX Core program. All sources have been detected up to ∼ 100 keV and their spectral characteristics derived with good accuracy. Although the results obtained from the detailed analysis of individual sources indicate some “source-by-source” differences, we show in the following that all spectra are consistent, at least qualitatively, with what expected from a “0th-order” version of unified models. Indeed, a simple test on these data indicates that these Seyfert 2 galaxies are on average intrinsically very similar to Seyfert 1 galaxies (i.e., steep at E≳ 10 keV) and that the main difference can be ascribed to a different amount of absorbing matter along the line of sight (i.e. different inclinations of our line of sight with respect to a putative molecular torus or different thicknesses of the tori).