Simultaneous modeling of FeII emission in the optical and near-infrared in a prototypical Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxy

Abstract

This work investigates the FeII emission in active galactic nuclei (AGN), combining observational data from optical and near-infrared (NIR) spectra of the prototypical FeII emitter IZw1 with state-of-the-art photoionization modeling. Using updated FeII atomic datasets (Smyth et al. 2019; Tayal & Zatsarinny 2018; Bautista et al. 2015), we explore a wide parameter space to determine the physical conditions of FeII-emitting regions in the broad-line region (BLR). Our results show that optical ($R_{\rm 4570}$) and NIR ($R_{\rm 1\mu m}$) FeII emission can be simultaneously reproduced under consistent conditions, with the best agreement obtained using the Smyth et al. (2019) dataset, for hydrogen densities of $10^{11.0}$ to $10^{12.0}$ cm$^{-3}$ and near-solar metallicity. We quantify, for the first time, the impact of Lyman-$\alpha$ fluorescence on the physical conditions of FeII emission in both regimes, revealing its dominant role in the NIR and, in contrast, highlighting the stronger influence of collisional processes in the optical. Additionally, for the first time, we compare optical and NIR FeII emission simultaneously with OI and the CaII triplet (CaT), reinforcing their connection to similar spatial regions and physical properties, as well as their usefulness as better proxies for optical FeII. Our findings support the idea of a vertical BLR structure, with NIR FeII and OI originating in less dense regions of the cloud than optical FeII and CaT.