OQ~208: A New Fe~II Changing-look Active Galactic Nucleus and Implications for the Nature of the Changing-look Phenomenon

In addition to the traditional hydrogen Balmer emission lines, here we extend the optical changing-look (CL) phenomenon occurring in some active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to the optical FeII complex. Multiepoch spectroscopy allows to identify OQ~208, a local flat-spectrum radio source, as a new FeII CL-AGN owing to the disappearance of both its strong FeII complex (RFe $\equiv$ FeII/H$\beta =0.64$) and its Balmer broad-line emission on a timescale of $\sim 14$,yr. The simultaneous disappearance implies that in this object, both the FeII and Balmer emission come from the same region exposed to the ionizing continuum. We further identify an anticorrelation between the FeII strength and the continuum (and also Eddington ratio) during the CL events in dozens of CL-AGNs recently studied by Panda & Sniegowska (2024), suggesting a negative response of RFe to both $L_{5100}$ and $L_{\mathrm{b}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{l}}\mathrm{/}{L}_{\mathrm{E}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{d}}$; this can be understood by the Comptonization process in a hot, optically thin accretion flow.