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Description
The diverse properties of broad-line quasars appear to follow a well-defined main sequence along which the optical FeII strength increases. It has been suggested that this sequence is mainly driven by the Eddington ratio (L/L_Edd_) of the black hole (BH) accretion. Shen & Ho (2014Natur.513..210S) demonstrated with quasar clustering analysis that the average BH mass decreases with increasing FeII strength when quasar luminosity is fixed, consistent with this suggestion. Here we perform an independent test by measuring the stellar velocity dispersion {sigma}_*_ (hence, the BH mass via the M-{sigma}_*_ relation) from decomposed host spectra in low-redshift Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasars. We found that at fixed quasar luminosity, {sigma}_*_ systematically decreases with increasing FeII strength, confirming that the Eddington ratio increases with FeII strength. We also found that at fixed luminosity and FeII strength, there is little dependence of {sigma}_*_ on the broad H{beta} FWHM. These new results reinforce the framework that the Eddington ratio and orientation govern most of the diversity seen in broad-line quasar properties.
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