Astron. Astrophys. 344, 857-867 (1999)

Astron. Astrophys. 344, 857-867 (1999)

5. Summary

The main results derived from the present BeppoSAX observation of Mkn 3 are the following:

Fit of the data above 8 keV require a strongly absorbed power-law, with 1.3 10²⁴ cm^-2.
The intrinsic high-energy power-law continuum is steep ( 1.8) and shows no high-energy cutoff up to 150 keV, similar to what is found in most Seyfert 1 galaxies.
Having argued that a second absorbed power-law (i.e. a dual-absorber) is unlikely in this source, the data between 2-10 keV require an unabsorbed reflection component to make the flat spectrum underlying the iron line.
From the data fit and the long-term X-ray history of the source, the (neutral) iron line intensity is consistent with being produced in an obscuring torus placed at a distance of 2 pc from the source partly by transmission through its rim and partly by reflection over its inner surface.
Iron line emission is also detected at 7.0 keV. It can be interpreted either as emission associated to the neutral reflection component and/or to the absorption, either as H- and He-like Fe emission associated to the ionized soft scattered component, or a combination of the two. It could also be produced by an additional reflection component from a highly inclined relativistic accretion disk.

Overall, these results fit well into unified models scenarios of Seyfert galaxies and highlight the potentialities of using BeppoSAX in broad-band X-ray spectroscopy studies of buried sources like Seyfert 2 galaxies.

Online publication: March 29, 1999
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