MgII line vs 3000{AA} continuum analysis in 68 QSOs

This is consistent with the idea that MgII is varying in response to the continuum emission variations. Adopting the modified weighted least squares regression method, we statistically constrain the slopes (i.e., the responsivity {alpha} of the broad MgII) between the variations in both components for the sources in different luminosity bins after eliminating intrinsic biases introduced by the rescaling process itself.

It is shown that the responsivity is quite small (average {bar}{alpha}~0.464) and anti- correlates with the quasar luminosity. Our results indicate that high signal- to-noise flux measurements are required to robustly detect the intrinsic variability and the time lag of the MgII line.