New bright soft X-ray selected ROSAT AGN II. Optical emission line properties

Abstract

We present the emission line properties of a sample of 76 bright soft X-ray selected ROSAT Active Galactic Nuclei. All optical counterparts are Seyfert 1 galaxies with rather narrow permitted lines, strong optical FeII line blends, and weak forbidden lines. By selection, they also have steep soft X-ray spectra when compared with typical Seyfert 1 galaxies. We discuss possible origins of these peculiar trends employing detailed correlation analyses, including a Principal Component Analysis. The optical spectra are presented in the Appendix.

13 pages, 5 figures, the paper included all spectra is available at http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/~dgrupe/research/refereed.html