2013ApJ...762...51Z

The anti-correlations between the equivalent widths of emission lines and the continuum luminosity in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), known as the Baldwin effect, are well established for broad lines, but are less well studied for narrow lines. In this paper we explore the Baldwin effect of narrow emission lines over a wide range of ionization levels and critical densities using a large sample of broad-line, radio-quiet AGNs taken from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4. These type 1 AGNs span three orders of magnitude in continuum luminosity. We show that most narrow lines show a similar Baldwin effect slope of about -0.2, while the significant deviations of the slopes for [N II] λ6583, [O II] λ3727, [Ne V] λ3425, and the narrow component of Hα can be explained by the influence of metallicity, star formation contamination, and possibly by the difference in the shape of the UV-optical continuum. The slopes do not show any correlation with either the ionization potential or the critical density. We show that a combination of 50% variations in continuum near 5100 Å and a lognormal distribution of observed luminosity can naturally reproduce a constant Baldwin effect slope of -0.2 for all narrow lines. The variations of the continuum could be due to variability, intrinsic anisotropic emission, or an inclination effect.