Soft excess in AGN with relativistic X‑ray reflection

Abstract

The soft X‑ray excess, emission below 2 keV over the X‑ray power‑law, is a marked spectral component in the X‑ray spectra of many Seyfert 1 galaxies. We investigate if the observed soft X‑ray excess in a sample of Seyfert 1s is in accordance with the prediction of the relativistic reflection model by analyzing the XMM‑Newton and NuSTAR spectra. The fractional difference in the soft excess (SE) obtained from the blurred reflection emission predicted (from NuSTAR) and the observed (from XMM‑Newton) luminosities show that the reflection model underestimates the SE emission in our sample. The results point to alternative models (for example, warm Comptonization) to explain the soft X‑ray excess in AGN.