Do the Broad Emission Line Clouds See the Same Continuum that We See?

Abstract

Recent observations of quasars, Mrk 335 and the HST quasar composite spectrum, have indicated that many of them have remarkably soft ionizing continua (fnu ~ nu^-2.0, 13.6 eV -- 100 eV). We point out that the number of E > 54.4 eV photons is insufficient to create the observed strengths of the He II emission lines. While the numbers of photons which energize C IV 1549 and O VI 1034 are sufficient, even the most efficiently emitting clouds for these two lines must each cover at least 20% -- 40% of the source. If the typical quasar ionizing continuum is indeed this soft, then we must conclude that the broad emission line clouds must see a very different (harder) continuum than we see. The other viable possibility is that the UV -- EUV SED is double-peaked, with the second peaking near 54 eV, its Wien tail the observed soft X-ray excess.