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The Origin Of Fe Ii Emission In Active Galactic Nuclei, J. A. Baldwin, Gary J. Ferland, K. T. Korista, F. Hamann, A. Lacluyzé

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We used a very large set of models of broad emission line region (BELR) clouds in active galactic nuclei to investigate the formation of the observed Fe II emission lines. We show that photoionized BELR clouds cannot produce both the observed shape and observed equivalent width of the 2200-2800 Å Fe II UV bump unless there is considerable velocity structure corresponding to a microturbulent velocity parameter v_turb≥100 km s^-1 for the locally optimally emitting cloud models used here. This could be either microturbulence in gas that is confined by some phenomenon such as MHD waves or a …