2012ApJ...751....7G

In active galactic nucleus spectra, a series of Fe II multiplets form a pseudo-continuum that extends from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared (NIR). This emission is believed to originate in the broad-line region, and it has been known for a long time that pure photoionization fails to reproduce it in the most extreme cases, as does the collisional excitation alone. The most recent models by Sigut & Pradhan include details of the Fe II ion microphysics and cover a wide range in the ionization parameter log U_ion= (- 3.0 -> -1.3) and density log n_H= (9.6 -> 12.6). With the aid of such models and a spectral synthesis approach, we studied for the first time in detail the NIR emission of I Zw 1. The main goals were to confirm the role played by Lyα fluorescence mechanisms in the production of the Fe II spectrum and to construct the first semi-empirical NIR Fe II template that best represents this emission, consequently allowing its clean subtraction in other sources. A good overall match between the observed Fe II+Mg II features with those predicted by the best-fitted model was obtained, corroborating the Lyα fluorescence as a key process to understand the Fe II spectrum. The best model was fine-tuned by applying a deconvolution method to the observed Fe II+Mg II spectrum. This derived semi-empirical template was then fitted to the spectrum of Ark 564, showing that it nicely reproduced its observed Fe II+Mg II emission. Our work extends the current set of available Fe II templates into the NIR region.