X-ray Variability Study of Polar Scattered Seyfert 1 Galaxies
  We study 12 Seyfert 1 galaxies with a high level of optical polarization.
Optical light emerging from the innermost regions is predominantly scattered in
a polar region above the central engine directly in our line of sight. These
sources show characteristics of Seyfert 2 galaxies such as, e.g., polarized
broad lines. The polarization signatures suggest a viewing angle of 45 degrees
classifying them as intermediate Seyfert 1/2 types. The unified model predicts
this line of sight to pass through the outer layer of the torus resulting in
significant soft X-ray variability due to a strongly varying column density.
The aim is to find evidence for this geometrical assumption in the spectral
variability of all available historical observations of these sources by
XMM-Newton and Swift.
