A high-density relativistic reflection origin for the soft and hard X-ray excess emission from Mrk 1044

TL;DR

This study uses spectral-timing analysis of X-ray data from Mrk 1044 to reveal that relativistic reflection from a high-density accretion disk explains the soft and hard X-ray excesses, with variability driven by coronal changes.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed spectral-timing analysis of Mrk 1044, demonstrating that a high-density relativistic reflection model explains multiple X-ray features and variability.

Findings

Relativistic reflection explains soft excess, iron line, and Compton hump.

Soft X-ray lags are signatures of reverberation from the accretion disc.

Variability is mainly driven by changes in the corona's geometry.

Abstract

We present the first results from a detailed spectral-timing analysis of a long ($\sim$130 ks) XMM-Newton observation and quasi-simultaneous NuSTAR and Swift observations of the highly-accreting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 1044. The broadband (0.3$-$50 keV) spectrum reveals the presence of a strong soft X-ray excess emission below $\sim$1.5 keV, iron K$_{\alpha}$ emission complex at $\sim$6$-$7 keV and a `Compton hump' at $\sim$15$-$30 keV. We find that the relativistic reflection from a high-density accretion disc with a broken power-law emissivity profile can simultaneously explain the soft X-ray excess, highly ionized broad iron line and the Compton hump. At low frequencies ($[2-6]\times10^{-5}$ Hz), the power-law continuum dominated 1.5$-$5 keV band lags behind the reflection dominated 0.3$-$1 keV band, which is explained with a combination of propagation fluctuation and Comptonization processes, while at higher frequencies ($[1-2]\times10^{-4}$ Hz), we detect a soft lag which is interpreted as a signature of X-ray reverberation from the accretion disc. The fractional root-mean-squared (rms) variability of the source decreases with energy and is well described by two variable components: a less variable relativistic disc reflection and a more variable direct coronal emission. Our combined spectral-timing analyses suggest that the observed broadband X-ray variability of Mrk~1044 is mainly driven by variations in the location or geometry of the optically thin, hot corona.