In this paper we present the longest exposure ( 97 ks ) XMM- Newton EPIC-pn spectrum ever obtained for the Seyfert 1.5 galaxy 1H 0419–577 .
With the aim of explaining the broadband emission of this source , we took advantage of the simultaneous coverage in the optical/UV that was provided in the present case by the XMM- Newton Optical Monitor and by a HST-COS observation .
Archival FUSE flux measurements in the FUV were also used for the present analysis .
We successfully modeled the X-ray spectrum together with the optical/UV fluxes data points using a Comptonization model .
We found that a blackbody temperature of T \sim 56 eV accounts for the optical/UV emission originating in the accretion disk .
This temperature serves as input for the Comptonized components that model the X-ray continuum .
Both a warm ( T _ { wc } \sim 0.7 keV , \tau _ { wc } \sim 7 ) and a hot corona ( T _ { hc } \sim 160 keV , \tau _ { hc } \sim 0.5 ) intervene to upscatter the disk photons to X-ray wavelengths .
With the addition of a partially covering ( C _ { v } \sim 50 \% ) cold absorber with a variable opacity ( N { { } _ { H } } \sim [ 10 ^ { 19 } -10 ^ { 22 } ] cm ^ { -2 } ) , this model can well explain also the historical spectral variability of this source , with the present dataset presenting the lowest one ( N { { } _ { H } } \sim 10 ^ { 19 } cm ^ { -2 } ) .
We discuss a scenario where the variable absorber , getting ionized in response to the variations of the X-ray continuum , becomes less opaque in the highest flux states .
The lower limit for the absorber density derived in this scenario is typical for the broad line region clouds .
We infer that 1H 0419–577 may be viewed from an intermediate inclination angle i \geq 54 ^ { \circ } , and , on this basis , we speculate that the X-ray obscuration may be associated with the innermost dust-free region of the obscuring torus .
Finally , we critically compare this scenario with all the different models ( e.g .
disk reflection ) that have been used in the past to explain the variability of this source .