The effects of X-ray absorption variability in NGC 4395
  We present a new X-ray analysis of the dwarf Seyfert galaxy NGC 4395, based
on two archival XMM-Newton and Suzaku observations. This source is well known
for a series of remarkable properties: one of the smallest estimated black hole
masses among Active Galactic Nuclei (of the order of ~10^5 M_sun), intense flux
variability on very short time-scales (a few tens of seconds), an unusually
flat X-ray continuum (Gamma ~ 1.4 over the 2-10 keV energy range). NGC 4395 is
also characterized by significant variations of the X-ray spectral shape, and
here we show that such behaviour can be explained through the partial
occultation by circumnuclear cold absorbers with column densities of
~10^22-10^23 cm^-2. In this scenario, the primary X-ray emission is best
reproduced by means of a power law with a standard Gamma ~ 1.8 photon index,
consistent with both the spectral slope observed at higher energies and the
values typical of local AGN.
