XMM–Newton observations of seven soft X-ray excess quasi-stellar objects

XMM–Newton observations of seven quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) are presented and the EPIC spectra analysed. Five of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) show evidence for Fe Kα emission, with three being slightly better fitted by lines of finite width; at the 99 per cent level they are consistent with being intrinsically narrow, though. The broad-band spectra can be well modelled by a combination of different temperature blackbodies (BBs) with a power law, with temperatures between kT ∼ 100 and 300 eV. On the whole, these temperatures are too high to be direct thermal emission from the accretion disc, so a Comptonization model was used as a more physical parametrization. The Comptonizing electron population forms the soft excess emission, with an electron temperature of ∼120–680 eV. Power-law, thermal plasma and disc BB models were also fitted to the soft X-ray excess. Of the sample, four of the active galactic nuclei are radio quiet and three radio loud. The radio-quiet QSOs may have slightly stronger soft excesses, although the electron temperatures cover the same range for both groups.