arXiv subjects

G. A. Kriss

Publications and source records attributed to G. A. Kriss.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Anatomy of the AGN in NGC 5548 VIII. XMM-Newton's EPIC detailed view of an unexpected variable multilayer absorber

In 2013 we conducted a large multi-wavelength campaign on the archetypical Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. Unexpectedly, this usually unobscured source appeared strongly absorbed in the soft X-rays during the entire campaign, and signatures of new and strong outflows were present in the almost simultaneous UV HST/COS data. Here we carry out a comprehensive spectral analysis of all available XMM-Newton observations of NGC 5548 (for a total of ~763 ks) in combination with 3 simultaneous NuSTAR obs. We obtain a best-fit composed by i) a weakly varying flat (Gamma~1.5-1.7) power-law component; ii) a constant, cold reflection (FeK + continuum) component; iii) a soft excess, possibly due to thermal Comptonization; and iv) a constant, ionized scattered emission-line dominated component. Our main findings are that, during the 2013 campaign, the first 3 of these components appear to be partially covered by a heavy and variable obscurer located along the l.o.s. that is consistent with a multilayer of cold and mildly ionized gas. We characterize in detail the short timescale (~ks-to-days) spectral variability of this new obscurer, and find it is mostly due to a combination of Nh and Cf variations, on top of intrinsic power-law variations. In addition, our best-fit spectrum is left with several (but marginal) absorption features at rest-frame energies ~6.7-6.9 keV and ~8 keV, as well as a weak broad emission line feature redwards of the 6.4 keV emission line. These could indicate a more complex underlying model, e.g. a P-Cygni-type profile if allowing for a large velocity and wide-angle outflow. These findings are consistent with a picture where the obscurer represents the manifestation along the l.o.s. of a multilayer of gas that is likely outflowing at high speed, and simultaneously producing heavy obscuration and scattering in the X-rays and broad absorption features in the UV.

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arXiv2016

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. IV. Anomalous behavior of the broad ultraviolet emission lines in NGC 5548

During an intensive Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) UV monitoring campaign of the Seyfert~1 galaxy NGC 5548 performed from 2014 February to July, the normally highly correlated far-UV continuum and broad emission-line variations decorrelated for ~60 to 70 days, starting ~75 days after the first HST/COS observation. Following this anomalous state, the flux and variability of the broad emission lines returned to a more normal state. This transient behavior, characterised by significant deficits in flux and equivalent width of the strong broad UV emission lines, is the first of its kind to be unambiguously identified in an active galactic nucleus reverberation mapping campaign. The largest corresponding emission-line flux deficits occurred for the high-ionization collisionally excited lines, C IV and Si IV(+O IV]), and also He II(+O III]), while the anomaly in Ly-alpha was substantially smaller. This pattern of behavior indicates a depletion in the flux of photons with E_{\rm ph} > 54 eV, relative to those near 13.6 eV. We suggest two plausible mechanisms for the observed behavior: (i) temporary obscuration of the ionizing continuum incident upon BLR clouds by a moving veil of material lying between the inner accretion disk and inner BLR, perhaps resulting from an episodic ejection of material from the disk, or (ii) a temporary change in the intrinsic ionizing continuum spectral energy distribution resulting in a deficit of ionizing photons with energies > 54 eV, possibly due to a transient restructuring of the Comptonizing atmosphere above the disk. Current evidence appears to favor the latter explanation.

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arXiv2016

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. III. Optical Continuum Emission and Broad-Band Time Delays in NGC 5548

We present ground-based optical photometric monitoring data for NGC 5548, part of an extended multi-wavelength reverberation mapping campaign. The light curves have nearly daily cadence from 2014 January to July in nine filters (\emph{BVRI} and \emph{ugriz}). Combined with ultraviolet data from the \emph{Hubble Space Telescope} and \emph{Swift}, we confirm significant time delays between the continuum bands as a function of wavelength, extending the wavelength coverage from 1158\,Å to the $z$ band ($\sim\!9160$\,Å). We find that the lags at wavelengths longer than the {\it V} band are equal to or greater than the lags of high-ionization-state emission lines (such as He\,{\sc ii}\,$λ1640$ and $λ4686$), suggesting that the continuum-emitting source is of a physical size comparable to the inner broad-line region (BLR). The trend of lag with wavelength is broadly consistent with the prediction for continuum reprocessing by an accretion disk with $τ\propto λ^{4/3}$. However, the lags also imply a disk radius that is 3 times larger than the prediction from standard thin-disk theory, assuming that the bolometric luminosity is 10\% of the Eddington luminosity ($L = 0.1L_{\rm Edd}$). Using optical spectra from the Large Binocular Telescope, we estimate the bias of the interband continuum lags due to BLR emission observed in the filters. We find that the bias for filters with high levels of BLR contamination ($\sim\! 20\%$) can be important for the shortest continuum lags, and likely has a significant impact on the {\it u} and {\it U} bands owing to Balmer continuum emission.

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arXiv2016

Anatomy of the AGN in NGC 5548: VII. Swift study of obscuration and broadband continuum variability

We present our investigation into the long-term variability of the X-ray obscuration and optical-UV-X-ray continuum in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. In 2013 and 2014, the Swift observatory monitored NGC 5548 on average every day or two, with archival observations reaching back to 2005, totalling about 670 ks of observing time. Both broadband spectral modelling and temporal rms variability analysis are applied to the Swift data. We disentangle the variability caused by absorption, due to an obscuring weakly-ionised outflow near the disk, from variability of the intrinsic continuum components (the soft X-ray excess and the power-law) originating from the disk and its associated coronae. The spectral model that we apply to this extensive Swift data is the global model that we derived for NGC 5548 from analysis of the stacked spectra from our multi-satellite campaign of summer 2013 (including XMM-Newton, NuSTAR and HST). The results of our Swift study show that changes in the covering fraction of the obscurer is the primary and dominant cause of variability in the soft X-ray band on timescales of 10 days to ~ 5 months. The obscuring covering fraction of the X-ray source is found to range between 0.7 and nearly 1.0. The contribution of the soft excess component to the X-ray variability is often much less than that of the obscurer, but it becomes comparable when the optical-UV continuum flares up. We find that the soft excess is consistent with being the high-energy tail of the optical-UV continuum and can be explained by warm Comptonisation: up-scattering of the disk seed photons in a warm, optically thick corona as part of the inner disk. To this date, the Swift monitoring of NGC 5548 shows that the obscurer has been continuously present in our line of sight for at least 4 years (since at least February 2012).

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arXiv2016

Anatomy of the AGN in NGC 5548. VI. Long-term variability of the warm absorber

(Abridged) The archetypal Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 was observed in 2013-2014 in the context of an extensive multiwavelength campaign, which revealed the source to be in an extraordinary state of persistent heavy obscuration. We re-analyzed the archival grating spectra obtained by XMM-Newton and Chandra between 1999 and 2007 in order to characterize the classic warm absorber (WA) using consistent models and up-to-date photoionization codes and atomic physics databases and to construct a baseline model that can be used as a template for the WA in the 2013 observations. The WA in NGC 5548 is composed of 6 distinct ionization phases outflowing in 4 kinematic regimes in the form of a stratified wind with several layers intersected by our line of sight. If the changes in the WA are solely due to ionization or recombination processes in response to variations in the ionizing flux among the different observations, we are able to estimate lower limits on the density of the WA, finding that the farthest components are less dense and have a lower ionization. These limits are used to put stringent upper limits on the distance of the WA components from the central ionizing source, with the lowest ionization phases <50, <20, and <5 pc, respectively, while the intermediately ionized components lie at <3.6 and <2.2 pc from the center, respectively. The highest ionization component is located at ~0.6 pc or closer to the AGN central engine. The mass outflow rate summed over all WA components is ~0.3 Msun/yr, about six times the nominal accretion rate of the source. The total kinetic luminosity injected into the ISM is a small fraction (~0.03%) of the bolometric luminosity of the source. After adding the contribution of the UV absorbers, this value augments to ~0.2% of the bolometric luminosity, well below the minimum amount of energy required by current feedback models to regulate galaxy evolution.

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arXiv2015

Discovery of a fast, broad, transient outflow in NGC 985

We observed the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 985 on multiple occasions to search for variability in its UV and X-ray absorption features in order to establish their location and physical properties. We use XMM-Newton to obtain X-ray spectra using the EPIC-pn camera, and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to obtain UV spectra. Our observations are simultaneous and span timescales of days to years. We find that the soft X-ray obscuration that absorbed the low energy continuum of NGC 985 in August 2013 diminished greatly by January 2015. The total X-ray column density decreased from 2.1 x 10^22 cm^-2 to ~6 x 10^21 cm^-2. We also detect broad, fast UV absorption lines in COS spectra obtained during the 2013 obscuration event. Lines of C III*, Ly alpha, Si IV and C IV with outflow velocities of -5970 km/s and a full-width at half-maximum of 1420 km/s are prominent in the 2013 spectrum, but have disappeared in all but Ly alpha in the 2015 spectra. The ionization state and the column density of the UV absorbing gas is compatible with arising in the same gas as that causing the X-ray obscuration. The high velocity of the UV-absorbing gas suggests that the X-ray obscurer and the associated UV outflow are manifestations of an accretion disk wind.

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arXiv2015

Anatomy of the AGN in NGC 5548: V. A clear view of the X-ray narrow emission lines

Context. Our consortium performed an extensive multi-wavelength campaign of the nearby Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 in 2013-14. The source appeared unusually heavily absorbed in the soft X-rays, and signatures of outflowing absorption were also present in the UV. He-like triplets of neon, oxygen and nitrogen, and radiative recombination continuum (RRC) features were found to dominate the soft X-ray spectrum due to the low continuum flux. Aims. Here we focus on characterising these narrow emission features using data obtained from the XMM-Newton RGS (770 ks stacked spectrum). Methods. We use SPEX for our initial analysis of these features. Self-consistent photoionisation models from Cloudy are then compared with the data to characterise the physical conditions of the emitting region. Results. Outflow velocity discrepancies within the O VII triplet lines can be explained if the X-ray narrow-line region (NLR) in NGC 5548 is absorbed by at least one of the six warm absorber components found by previous analyses. The RRCs allow us to directly calculate a temperature of the emitting gas of a few eV ($\sim10^{4}$ K), favouring photoionised conditions. We fit the data with a Cloudy model of log $ξ= 1.45 \pm 0.05$ erg cm s$^{-1}$, log $N_H = 22.9 \pm 0.4$ cm$^{-2}$ and log v$_{turb} = 2.25 \pm 0.5$ km s$^{-1}$ for the emitting gas; this is the first time the X-ray NLR gas in this source has been modelled so comprehensively. This allows us to estimate the distance from the central source to the illuminated face of the emitting clouds as $13.9 \pm 0.6$ pc, consistent with previous work.

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arXiv2015

Anatomy of the AGN in NGC 5548 IV. The short-term variability of the outflows

During an extensive multiwavelength campaign that we performed in 2013-14 the prototypical Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 has been found in an unusual condition of heavy and persistent obscuration. The newly discovered "obscurer" absorbs most of the soft X-ray continuum along our line of sight and lowers the ionizing luminosity received by the classical warm absorber. Here we present the analysis of the high resolution X-ray spectra collected with XMM-Newton and Chandra throughout the campaign, which are suitable to investigate the variability of both the obscurer and the classical warm absorber. The time separation between these X-ray observations range from 2 days to 8 months. On these timescales the obscurer is variable both in column density and in covering fraction. This is consistent with the picture of a patchy wind. The most significant variation occurred in September 2013 when the source brightened for two weeks. A higher and steeper intrinsic continuum and a lower obscurer covering fraction are both required to explain the spectral shape during the flare. We suggest that a geometrical change of the soft X-ray source behind the obscurer cause the observed drop in the covering fraction. Due to the higher soft X-ray continuum level the September 2013 Chandra spectrum is the only X ray spectrum of the campaign where individual features of the warm absorber could be detected. The spectrum shows absorption from Fe-UTA, \ion{O}{iv}, and \ion{O}{v}, consistent to belong to the lower-ionization counterpart of the historical NGC 5548 warm absorber. Hence, we confirm that the warm absorber has responded to the drop in the ionizing luminosity caused by the obscurer.

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arXiv2015

Characteristics of He II Proximity Profiles

The proximity profile in the spectra of z~3 quasars, where fluxes extend blueward of the He II Lya wavelength 304 (1+z) A, is one of the most important spectral features in the study of the intergalactic medium. Based on the HST spectra of 24 He II quasars, we find that the majority of them display a proximity profile, corresponding to an ionization radius as large as 20 Mpc in the source's rest frame. In comparison with those in the H i spectra of the quasars at z~6, the He II proximity effect is more prominent and is observed over a considerably longer period of reionization. The He II proximity zone sizes decrease at higher redshifts, particularly at z > 3.3. This trend is similar to that for H I, signaling an onset of He II reionization at z~4. For quasar SDSS1253+6817 (z=3.48), the He II absorption trough displays a gradual decline and serves a good case for modeling the He II reionization. To model such a broad profile requires a quasar radiation field whose distribution between 4 and 1 Rydberg is considerably harder than normally assumed. The UV continuum of this quasar is indeed exceptionally steep, and the He II ionization level in the quasar vicinity is higher than the average level in the intergalactic medium. These results are evidence that a very hard EUV continuum from this quasar produces a large ionized zone around it. Distinct exceptions are the two brightest He II quasars at z~2.8, for which no significant proximity profile is present, possibly implying that they are young.

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arXiv2015

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. I. Ultraviolet Observations of the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 5548 with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on Hubble Space Telescope

We describe the first results from a six-month long reverberation-mapping experiment in the ultraviolet based on 170 observations of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. Significant correlated variability is found in the continuum and broad emission lines, with amplitudes ranging from ~30% to a factor of two in the emission lines and a factor of three in the continuum. The variations of all the strong emission lines lag behind those of the continuum, with He II 1640 lagging behind the continuum by ~2.5 days and Lyman alpha 1215, C IV 1550, and Si IV 1400 lagging by ~5-6 days. The relationship between the continuum and emission lines is complex. In particular, during the second half of the campaign, all emission-line lags increased by a factor of 1.3-2 and differences appear in the detailed structure of the continuum and emission-line light curves. Velocity-resolved cross-correlation analysis shows coherent structure in lag versus line-of-sight velocity for the emission lines; the high-velocity wings of C IV respond to continuum variations more rapidly than the line core, probably indicating higher velocity BLR clouds at smaller distances from the central engine. The velocity-dependent response of Lyman alpha, however, is more complex and will require further analysis.

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arXiv2015

Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. II. Swift and HST Reverberation Mapping of the Accretion Disk of NGC 5548

Recent intensive Swift monitoring of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 yielded 282 usable epochs over 125 days across six UV/optical bands and the X-rays. This is the densest extended AGN UV/optical continuum sampling ever obtained, with a mean sampling rate <0.5 day. Approximately daily HST UV sampling was also obtained. The UV/optical light curves show strong correlations (r_max = 0.57 - 0.90) and the clearest measurement to date of interband lags. These lags are well-fit by a τpropto λ^4/3 wavelength dependence, with a normalization that indicates an unexpectedly large disk radius of 0.35 +/- 0.05 lt-day at 1367 A, assuming a simple face-on model. The U-band shows a marginally larger lag than expected from the fit and surrounding bands, which could be due to Balmer continuum emission from the broad-line region as suggested by Korista and Goad. The UV/X-ray correlation is weaker (r_max < 0.45) and less consistent over time. This indicates that while Swift is beginning to measure UV/optical lags in general agreement with accretion disk theory (although the derived size is larger than predicted), the relationship with X-ray variability is less well understood. Combining this accretion disk size estimate with those from quasar microlensing studies suggests that AGN disk sizes scale approximately linearly with central black hole mass over a wide range of masses.

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arXiv2015

Anatomy of the AGN in NGC 5548: III. The high-energy view with NuSTAR and INTEGRAL

We describe the analysis of the seven broad-band X-ray continuum observations of the archetypal Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 that were obtained with XMM-Newton or Chandra, simultaneously with high-energy (> 10 keV) observations with NuSTAR and INTEGRAL. These data were obtained as part of a multiwavelength campaign undertaken from the summer of 2013 till early 2014. We find evidence of a high-energy cut-off in at least one observation, which we attribute to thermal Comptonization, and a constant reflected component that is likely due to neutral material at least a few light months away from the continuum source. We confirm the presence of strong, partial covering X-ray absorption as the explanation for the sharp decrease in flux through the soft X-ray band. The obscurers appear to be variable in column density and covering fraction on time scales as short as weeks. A fit of the average spectrum over the range 0.3-400 keV with a realistic Comptonization model indicates the presence of a hot corona with a temperature of 40(+40,-10) keV and an optical depth of 2.7(+0.7,-1.2) if a spherical geometry is assumed.

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arXiv2015

Anatomy of the AGN in NGC 5548: I. A global model for the broadband spectral energy distribution

An extensive multi-satellite campaign on NGC 5548 has revealed this archetypal Seyfert-1 galaxy to be in an exceptional state of persistent heavy absorption. Our observations taken in 2013-2014 with XMM-Newton, Swift, NuSTAR, INTEGRAL, Chandra, HST and two ground-based observatories have together enabled us to establish that this unexpected phenomenon is caused by an outflowing stream of weakly ionised gas (called the obscurer), extending from the vicinity of the accretion disk to the broad-line region. In this work we present the details of our campaign and the data obtained by all the observatories. We determine the spectral energy distribution of NGC 5548 from near-infrared to hard X-rays by establishing the contribution of various emission and absorption processes taking place along our line of sight towards the central engine. We thus uncover the intrinsic emission and produce a broadband continuum model for both obscured (average summer 2013 data) and unobscured ($<$ 2011) epochs of NGC 5548. Our results suggest that the intrinsic NIR/optical/UV continuum is a single Comptonised component with its higher energy tail creating the 'soft X-ray excess'. This component is compatible with emission from a warm, optically-thick corona as part of the inner accretion disk. We then investigate the effects of the continuum on the ionisation balance and thermal stability of photoionised gas for unobscured and obscured epochs.

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arXiv2014

Modeling Warm Absorption in HST/COS Spectrum of Mrk 290 with XSTAR

We present a new method to model a HST/COS spectrum, aimed to analyze intrinsic UV absorption from the outflow of Mrk 290, a Seyfert I galaxy. We use newly updated XSTAR to generate photoionization models for the intrinsic absorption from the AGN outflow, the line emission from the AGN broad and narrow line regions, and the local absorption from high velocity clouds and Galactic interstellar medium. The combination of these physical models accurately fit the COS spectrum. Three intrinsic absorbers outflowing with velocities ~500 km/s are identified, two of which are found directly from two velocity components of the N V and C IV doublets, while the third is required by the extra absorption in the Lyman alpha. Their outflow velocities, ionization states and column densities are consistent with the lowest and moderately ionization warm absorbers (WAs) in the X-ray domain found by Chandra observations, suggesting an one-to-one correspondence between the absorbing gas in the UV and X-ray bands. The small turbulent velocities of the WAs (v_turb~<100 km/s) support our previous argument from the X-ray study that the absorbers originate from the inner side of the torus due to thermal evaporation. Given the covering fractions of ~65% for the three WAs, we deduce that the lengths and the thicknesses of the WAs are comparable, which indicates that the geometry of WAs are more likely clouds rather than flat and thin layers. In addition, the modeling of the broad line emission suggests a higher covering fraction of clouds when they are very closer to the black hole.

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arXiv2014

Anatomy of the AGN in NGC 5548: II. The Spatial, Temporal and Physical Nature of the Outflow from HST/COS Observations

(Abridged) Our deep multiwavelength campaign on NGC 5548 revealed an unusually strong X-ray obscuration. The resulting dramatic decrease in incident ionizing flux allowed us to construct a comprehensive physical, spatial and temporal picture for the long-studied AGN wind in this object. Here we analyze the UV spectra of the outflow acquired during the campaign as well as from four previous epochs. We find that a simple model based on a fixed total column-density absorber, reacting to changes in ionizing illumination, matches the very different ionization states seen in five spectroscopic epochs spanning 16 years. Absorption troughs from C III* appeared for the first time during our campaign. From these troughs, we infer that the main outflow component is situated at 3.5+-1 pc from the central source. Three other components are situated between 5-70 pc and two are further than 100 pc. The wealth of observational constraints and the disparate relationship of the observed X-ray and UV flux between different epochs make our physical model a leading contender for interpreting trough variability data of quasar outflows.

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arXiv2014

Multiwavelength campaign on Mrk 509 XIV. Chandra HETGS spectra

We present in this paper the results of a 270 ks Chandra HETGS observation in the context of a large multiwavelength campaign on the Seyfert galaxy Mrk 509. The HETGS spectrum allows us to study the high ionisation warm absorber and the Fe-K complex in Mrk 509. We search for variability in the spectral properties of the source with respect to previous observations in this campaign, as well as for evidence of ultra-fast outflow signatures. The Chandra HETGS X-ray spectrum of Mrk 509 was analysed using the SPEX fitting package. We confirm the basic structure of the warm absorber found in the 600 ks XMM-Newton RGS observation observed three years earlier, consisting of five distinct ionisation components in a multikinematic regime. We find little or no variability in the physical properties of the different warm absorber phases with respect to previous observations in this campaign, except for component D2 which has a higher column density at the expense of component C2 at the same outflow velocity (-240 km/s). Contrary to prior reports we find no -700 km/s outflow component. The O VIII absorption line profiles show an average covering factor of 0.81 +/- 0.08 for outflow velocities faster than -100 km/s, similar to those measured in the UV. This supports the idea of a patchy wind. The relative metal abundances in the outflow are close to proto-solar. The narrow component of the Fe Kalpha emission line shows no changes with respect to previous observations which confirms its origin in distant matter. The narrow line has a red wing that can be interpreted to be a weak relativistic emission line. We find no significant evidence of ultra-fast outflows in our new spectrum down to the sensitivity limit of our data.

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arXiv2014

A fast and long-lived outflow from the supermassive black hole in NGC 5548

Supermassive black holes in the nuclei of active galaxies expel large amounts of matter through powerful winds of ionized gas. The archetypal active galaxy NGC 5548 has been studied for decades, and high-resolution X-ray and UV observations have previously shown a persistent ionized outflow. An observing campaign in 2013 with six space observatories shows the nucleus to be obscured by a long-lasting, clumpy stream of ionized gas never seen before. It blocks 90% of the soft X-ray emission and causes simultaneous deep, broad UV absorption troughs. The outflow velocities of this gas are up to five times faster than those in the persistent outflow, and at a distance of only a few light days from the nucleus, it may likely originate from the accretion disk.

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arXiv2014

Multiwavelength campaign on Mrk 509. XIII. Testing ionized-reflection models on Mrk 509

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are the most luminous persistent objects in the universe. An excess of X-ray emission below about 2 keV, called soft-excess, is very common in Type 1 AGN spectra. The origin of this feature remains debated. Originally modeled with a blackbody, there are now several possibilities to model the soft-excess, including warm Comptonization and blurred ionized reflection. In this paper, we test ionized-reflection models on Mrk 509, a bright Seyfert 1 galaxy for which we have a unique data set, in order to determine whether it can be responsible for the strong soft-excess. We use ten simultaneous XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL observations performed every four days. We present here the results of the spectral analysis, the evolution of the parameters and the variability properties of the X-ray emission. The application of blurred ionized-reflection models leads to a very strong reflection and an extreme geometry, but fails to reproduce the broad-band spectrum of Mrk 509. Two different scenarios for blurred ionized reflection are discussed: stable geometry and lamp-post configuration. In both cases we find that the model parameters do not follow the expected relations, indicating that the model is fine-tuned to fit the data without physical justification. A large, slow variation of the soft-excess without counterpart in the hard X-rays could be explained by a change in ionization of the reflector. However, such a change does not naturally follow from the assumed geometrical configuration. Warm Comptonization remains the most probable origin of the soft-excess in this object. Nevertheless, it is possible that both ionized reflection and warm Comptonization mechanisms can explain the soft-excess in all objects, one dominating the other one, depending on the physical conditions of the disk and the corona.

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