We report the spectral analysis of a long XMM-Newton observation of the well-studied , moderate luminosity Broad Line Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 .
The source was at an historically average brightness and we find the hard ( 3-10 keV ) spectrum can be well fitted by a power law of photon index \Gamma \sim 1.75 , together with reflection .
The only feature in the hard X-ray spectrum is a narrow emission line near 6.4 keV , with an equivalent width of \sim 60 eV .
The energy and strength of this line is consistent with fluorescence from ‘ neutral ’ iron distant from the central continuum source .
We find no evidence for a broad Fe K line , with an upper limit well below previous reports , suggesting the inner accretion disc is now absent or highly ionised .
The addition of simultaneous BeppoSAX data allows the analysis to be extended to 200 keV , yielding important constraints on the total reflection .
Extrapolation of the hard X-ray power law down to 0.3 keV shows a clear ‘ soft excess ’ below \sim 0.7 keV .
After due allowance for the effects of a complex warm absorber , measured with the XMM-Newton RGS , we find the soft excess is better described as a smooth upward curvature in the continuum flux below \sim 2 keV .
The soft excess can be modelled either by Comptonised thermal emission or by enhanced reflection from the surface of a highly ionised disc .