The nature of the soft X-ray emission in obscured AGN

Abstract

The origin of the soft X-ray emission in obscured AGN is still largely unknown. However, important progresses have been made thanks to the high energy and spatial resolution of XMM-Newton and Chandra. We review here the latest results on this issue, focusing on the physical properties of the material responsible for the soft X-ray emission and its relation to the circumnuclear environment, putting them in the general context of our understanding of the AGN structure and its feedback to the host galaxy.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures, invited review talk at the Workshop "The multicoloured landscape of compact objects and their explosive origin", Cefalu' (Sicily), 11-24 June 2006, to be published by AI