X-RAY IMPLICATIONS OF A UNIFIED MODEL OF SEYFERT-GALAXIES

We observed 16 Seyfert galaxies, including 9 Seyfert 2 galaxies, with the Ginga satellite. Thirteen of the Seyfert galaxies in our sample have been detected, and the iron line and K-edge structure for these galaxies investigated. Twelve of the thirteen detected galaxies also have a detected iron line. The equivalent width of a Seyfert 1 galaxy is distributed around a mean value of about 173 eV, with a standard deviation of about 40 eV; that for a Seyfert 2 galaxy is scattered from < 80 eV to 1300 eV. Most of the detected galaxies show an absorption feature at the energy of the iron K-edge. The iron column density determined from the iron K-edge structure ranges from < 10(17.5) cm-2 to 2 x 10(19) cm-2. Using a Monte Carlo simulation, we found that isotropic X-ray emission within a uniformly distributed gas cannot explain the observed result. The overall distribution of the iron line and the K-edge intensity for all of the galaxies in our sample could be reproduced by using an accretion torus model with a single parameter: the viewing angle to the active galactic nucleus within an accretion torus.