The [OIII] emission line in SDSS AGNs

DOI

We use homogeneous samples of radio-quiet Seyfert 1 galaxies and QSOs selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to investigate the connection between the velocity shift and the equivalent width (EW) of the [OIII]{lambda}5007 emission line, and their correlations with physical parameters of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We find a significant and negative correlation between the EW of the core component, EW(core), and the blueshift of either the core (the peak), the wing, or the total profile of [OIII] emission; it is fairly strong for the blueshift of the total profile in particular. However, both quantities (EW and velocity shift) generally have only weak, if any, correlations with fundamental AGN parameters such as the nuclear continuum luminosity at 5100{AA} (L_5100_), black hole mass (M_BH_), and the Eddington ratio (L/L_Edd_); these correlations include the classical Baldwin effect of EW(core), an inverse Baldwin effect of EW(wing), and the relationship between velocity shifts and L/L_Edd_. Our findings suggest that both the large object-to-object variation in the strength of [OIII] emission and the blueshift-EW(core) connection are not governed primarily by fundamental AGN parameters such as L_5100_, M_BH_, and L/L_Edd_. We propose that the interstellar medium conditions of the host galaxies play a major role instead in the diversity of the [OIII] properties in active galaxies. This suggests that the use of [OIII]{lambda}5007 luminosity as a proxy of AGN luminosity does not depend strongly on the above-mentioned fundamental AGN parameters.

Cone search capability for table J/ApJ/737/71/table1 (Parameters of the core and wing components of [OIII]{lambda}5007 emission line: basic sample)

Cone search capability for table J/ApJ/737/71/table2 (Equivalent width and flux of the core and wing components of [OIII]{lambda}5007 emission line: extended sample)

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.17370071
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/737/71
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/737/71
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/737/71
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/737/71
Provenance
Creator Zhang K.; Dong X.-B.; Wang T.-G.; Gaskell C.M.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2013
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; High Energy Astrophysics; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy