Title: INTEGRAL observations of the reflection component in Seyfert Galaxies


Proposal ID: 0120094
Subject category: Extragalactic Object
Principal investigator: Fabian
Institute: Institute of Astronomy

Abstract

Compton reflection in the accretion disc around massive black holes creates an important component of the spectrum of Seyfert galaxies. The main observables are the iron line at 6.4 keV and a broad reflection "hump" peaking at 30-40 keV. The iron line has been well-studied leading to important results on the accretion flow in the strong-gravity environment of the black hole. The reflection hump has so far only been poorly studied. We propose to use Integral to make observations of the reflection hump in a small sample of the brightest Seyfert galaxies on the hard X-ray sky. The anticipated results will be complementary to those from the broad iron line and will enable us to break degeneracies between the solid angle and metallicity of the reflector. They will also enable us to determine the shape of the underlying continuum and probe the geometry of the emission regions.