The Seyfert 1 galaxy 1E 1615+061 was observed to display a very steep ( { \Gamma \simeq 4.2 } ) and intense soft X-ray spectrum during a HEAO-1 A2 observation in the 1978 .
Such an exceptionally soft X-ray state has never been observed subsequently , but the source has continued to exhibit a large ( up to a factor 6 ) range of X-ray intensity variability .
The overall UV/X-ray spectrum of this source , observed during a multiwavelength campaign in 1991–1992 , can be well fit with a self-consistent , low- \dot { M } accretion disk model .
In this model , the soft X-rays result were suggested to arise from reflection of the nuclear emission by mildly ionized ( { \xi \simeq 100 } ) material in the inner regions of the disk .
In this Paper we report the results of an ASCA observation in 1995 August , which give a direct confirmation of such a scenario .
The spectrum may be modeled as a power-law with a photon index of 1.8 , together with absorption consistent with the galactic line of sight value , substantial reflection from ionized material and an iron fluorescent K _ { \alpha } emission line .
The centroid energy ( \simeq 6.6–6.8 keV ) implies a ionization stage \geq Fe xix .
The line profile is consistent with that expected from a kinematically and gravitationally distorted line around a black hole .
These results provide the first direct evidence for the existence of considerable amount of ionized material around the nucleus of a “ broad ” Seyfert 1 galaxy .