Changing look: from Compton‐thick to Compton‐thin, or the rebirth of fossil active galactic nuclei

We discuss the properties of a small sample of type 2 Seyfert galaxies whose X-ray spectra changed appearance on time-scales of years, becoming reflection-dominated from Compton-thin, or vice versa. A reflection-dominated spectrum is usually taken as evidence of Compton-thick absorption, but we instead argue that such a spectrum is due to a temporary switching-off of the nuclear radiation. The observations discussed here may help to explain mismatches between optical and X-ray classifications, and provide new strong and direct evidence for the presence of more than one cold circumnuclear region in type 2 Seyfert galaxies.

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