The Correlation between Si III] 1892/ C III] 1909 and Fe II 4500/ H beta in low redshift QSOs

Abstract

HST archival FOS spectra of 40 QSOs with z <= 0.5 in the Bright Quasar Survey have been analyzed. The spectra cover the region 1800-2000 A in the QSOs&#39; rest frames, including the Al III 1859, Si III] 1892, C III] 1909, and Fe III UV34 emission-lines. We measured the flux of these UV emission-lines, and analyzed the correlations among UV and optical (H beta, Fe II, and [O III]) emission-line properties as well as soft X-ray photon indices. We found a significant correlation between Si III]/C III] and Fe II/H beta. Si III and C III have similar ionization potentials, but Si III] has one order magnitude larger critical density than C III]. Si III]/C III] is thus a density indicator and becomes larger when density is higher. The correlation between Si III]/C III] and Fe II/H beta indicates that optical Fe II becomes strong when the density of the broad line region becomes high. Our correlation analysis shows that large Si III]/C III] associates with weak [O III] 5007, large soft X-ray photon index, and narrow H beta width as well as with large Fe II/H beta. Our results support the previous suggestions that the density of the broad line region gas and the mass accretion rate govern this correlation.