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XMM-Newton Detection of a Comptonized Accretion Disc in the Quasar PKS0558-504

P. T. O'Brien, J. N. Reeves, M. J. L. Turner, K. A. Pounds, M. Page, M. Gliozzi, W. Brinkmann, J. B. Stephen, M. Dadina

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/0010386

Abstract

We present XMM-Newton observations of the bright quasar PKS0558-504. The 0.2-10 keV spectrum is dominated by a large, variable soft X-ray excess. The fastest flux variations imply accretion onto a Kerr black hole. The XMM-Newton data suggest the presence of a `big blue bump' in PKS0558-504 extending from the optical band to ~3 keV. The soft X-ray spectrum shows no evidence for significant absorption or emission-line features. The most likely explanation for the hot big blue bump is Comptonization by the multi-temperature corona of a thermal accretion disc running at a high accretion rate.

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