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Description
We used Spitzer/Infrared Spectrograph spectroscopic data on 426 galaxies including quasars, Seyferts, LINERs, and HII galaxies to investigate the relationship among the mid-IR emission lines. There is a tight linear correlation between the [NeV]14.3um and 24.3um (97.1eV) and the [OIV]25.9um (54.9eV) high-ionization emission lines. The correlation also holds for these high-ionization emission lines and the [NeIII]15.56um (41eV) emission line, although only for active galaxies. We used these correlations to calculate the [NeIII] excess due to star formation in Seyfert galaxies. We also estimated the [OIV] luminosity due to star formation in active galaxies and determined that it dominates the [OIV] emission only if the contribution of the active nucleus to the total luminosity is below 5%. We find that the active galactic nucleus dominates the [OIV] emission in most Seyfert galaxies, whereas star formation adequately explains the observed [OIV] emission in optically classified HII galaxies. Finally, we computed photoionization models to determine the physical conditions of the narrow-line region where these high-ionization lines originate. The estimated ionization parameter range is -2.8<logU<-2.5 and the total hydrogen column density range is 20<logn_H_(cm^-2^)<21.
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