FeII emission in SDSS type 1 AGNs

We find that the strongest correlations of almost all the emission-line intensity ratios and equivalent widths (EWs) are with the Eddington ratio (L/L_Edd_), rather than with the continuum luminosity at 5100{AA} (L_5100_) or black hole mass (M_BH_); the only exception is the EW of ultraviolet FeII emission, which does not correlate at all with broad-line width, L_5100_, M_BH_, or L/L_Edd_.

By contrast, the intensity ratios of both the ultraviolet and optical FeII emission to MgII{lambda}2800 correlate quite strongly with L/L_Edd_. Interestingly, among all the emission lines in the near-UV and optical studied in this paper (including MgII{lambda}2800, H{beta}, and [OIII]{lambda}5007), the EW of narrow optical FeII emission has the strongest correlation with L/L_Edd_. We hypothesize that the variation of the emission-line strength in active galaxies is regulated by L/L_Edd_ because it governs the global distribution of the hydrogen column density of the clouds gravitationally bound in the line-emitting region, as well as its overall gas supply.