BeppoSAX observations of radio loud AGNs

Abstract According to the Unified Schemes for AGNs, Radio Galaxies, quasars and Blazars are the same object seen at increasing angles of view. The first BeppoSAX observations of bright X-ray radio loud objects seem to agree with a such hypothesis. Typical features produced by the impinging of the X-ray continuum onto cold matter, i.e. fluorescence iron line and reflection hump, are observed in the Broad Line Radio Galaxy 3C390.3 and in the Narrow Line Radio Galaxy Centaurus A. In spite of the strong continuum produced by the relativistic jet, features in absorption and emission as well as a soft excess are detected in the quasar 3C273, implying accretion processes similar to radio galaxies. The intrinsic absorption of soft photons also increases with the inclination angle, being larger in Centaurus A than in 3C390.3. This result is what we would expect if opaque material (in form of warped disk/torus) blocks the X-rays escape from the nuclear region. We conclude that the first BeppoSAX observations of bright radio loud AGN support the Unified Schemes idea that an anisotropic distribution of absorbing matter as well as intrinsic beaming of the radiation can account for different apparency of similar sources.