0320038

These nearby galaxies proposed for study with INTEGRAL have been carefully selected as an intriguing set of exploratory objects which could open an important window in the context of future gamma-ray/AGN studies and are readily detectable by INTEGRAL. Observation of these objects with INTEGRAL follows as a natural consequence of recent X-ray observations and in particular our recent survey of AGN in the hard X-ray region of the spectrum with CGRO-BATSE. Although classified differently within the Seyfert 2LINER context and spanning the spiral and elliptical galaxy classification they appear to exhibit many fundamentally similar characteristics when the central engine is studied at high energies. They emit hard power law spectra above ~10 keV and are highly obscured with absorption at the NH > 10E23 level. They are accreting material at a level that is considerably below their Eddington rate and as such may be subject to Advection Dominated Accretion Flow (ADAF). This model could explain why observations of the nuclei of several nearby galaxies indicate the presence of super massive (10E6 - 10E9 M(Solar)) black holes (BH) and yet not strong AGN activity. We plan to test such models and carefully analyse the implications of our results in terms of the evolution towards normal galaxies and the composition of the cosmic diffuse gamma-ray background. [truncated! Please see actual data for full text]