Description
The emission-line flux ratio of [OIII]4363/[OIII]5007 (R_OIII_) is a useful diagnostic for the ionization mechanism and physical properties of emission-line regions in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). However, it is known that simple photoionization models underpredict the [OIII]4363 intensity, being inconsistent with observations. In this paper we report on several pieces of evidence that a large fraction of the [OIII]4363 emission arises from the dense gas obscured by putative tori: (1) the visibility of high-R_OIII_ regions is correlated to that of broad-line regions, (2) higher R_OIII_ objects show hotter mid-infrared colors, (3) higher R_OIII_ objects show stronger highly ionized emission lines such as [FeVII] 6087 and [FeX]6374, and (4) higher R_OIII_ objects have broader line width of [OIII]4363 normalized by that of [OIII]5007.
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