Quasars: Near Versus Far

All observed characteristics of quasars are customarily interpreted using the standard Big Bang model and the assumption that their redshifts are primarily due to the expansion of the universe. These same characteristics can also be interpreted using alternative models in which quasar redshifts are not cosmological. In the table below, the quality of these two interpretations is compared. We see that, although both interpretations are possible, Occam's Razor cuts sharply in favor of the nearby quasar interpretation. The consequences of continuing to ignore this in journal articles, at meetings, in grant awards, in experiment and instrument design, in telescope allocation, in textbooks, and in the classroom, are to inhibit meaningful progress in the field on many fronts. This is true regardless of which hypothesis is more nearly correct, since ignoring useful, viable hypotheses or discordant data teaches unscientific behavior.

OBSERVATIONAL FACT

1. Quasars have little or no visible angular extent.
2. Quasars have rapid light variations.
3. Even high-redshift quasars have long jets.
4. Features in quasar jets are observed to move outward.
5. The angular size of visible nebulas surrounding some quasars does not diminish, and may even increase, with increasing redshift.
6. Some high-redshift quasars are relatively bright.
7. Quasars do not exhibit the type of brightness-number relationship found for galaxies. The distribution is flat out to nearly redshift z = 2, then drops sharply.
8. Small redshift and large redshift quasars are found infrequently.
9. Discrete X-ray sources are found in our own galaxy and in some quasars and related objects.
10. An X-ray flare from a quasar with z = 0.14 was observed to increase its brightness by 67% in just three minutes.
11. The calculated charged particle density is a function of inferred distance.
12. Some low redshift galaxies have associated quasars. Some of those appear to be connected to the galaxies.
13. Quasars, even at high redshifts, are frequently accompanied by faint galaxies at small separations.
14. The magnitudes and angular separations of quasar-galaxy pairs are correlated with the galaxy redshift.
15. Where distant clusters of galaxies are observed, quasars are generally not found in them.
16. Quasars with redshifts greater than 1.5 show no tendency toward galaxy-like clustering or voids.
17. Quasars do show strong, large-scale clustering around nearby galaxy groups, such as the Virgo and Sculptor clusters and M87.
18. Absorption lines in the spectra of quasar light are quite narrow.
19. The number of absorption line systems seen in Lyman alpha does not monotonically increase with redshift. Low-z quasars such as 3C 273 (z = 0.16) have as many absorption systems as high-z quasars.
20. Quasar jets have variable polarization due to a magnetic field.
21. So-called "iron quasars" contain extremely strong emission lines from ionized iron.

INTERPRETATION IN STANDARD MODEL

1. Only the center of the galaxy-like mass which produces the energy is visible.
2. Most quasar light comes from a small source of solar system dimensions, even in quasars as big as giant galaxies.
3. Such jets must be the largest contiguous structures in the universe.
4. Apparent faster-than-light motions must be relativistically beamed toward us.
5. An evolutionary effect, since early, distant, high-redshift quasars are more energetic.
6. Unknown energy mechanism produces equivalent of thousands of supernovas per year, enabling them to be bright at great distances.
7. An evolutionary effect caused by quasars being primarily a feature of the early stages of the universe. No predictable relation between quasar numbers and space volume exists.
8. Most quasars died out long ago. Quasars formed and died during a limited period of evolution of the universe.
9. Most X-rays come from nearby or very far away, but generally not from intermediate distances.
10. These X-rays must be relativistically directed toward us in a narrow, short-lived beam.
11. Theoretical problem getting photons out from interior when density gets too high.
12. Statistical coincidence and optical illusions.
13. Statistical coincidence and gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters. High-redshift associations cannot be real.
14. An observational selection effect which will disappear when catalogs are more complete.
15. An evolutionary effect, not fully understood.
16. The significance of galaxy voids is still being studied. Clustering is an evolutionary effect, not yet strong during the main quasar era.
17. Selection effect of concentrating searches in these regions.
18. Caused by intervening hydrogen clouds. Implied cloud temperatures (5,000-10,000 degrees) are below predicted 30,000 degrees.
19. The hydrogen clouds doing the absorbing are not uniformly spread through space, and are more abundant at recent (therefore close) epochs. Lack of metal lines makes galaxy halos unlikely candidates as absorbers.
20. The magnetic field is in invisible, young intervening galaxies, which must then have fields as strong as mature galaxies.
21. These still defy any consensus explanation.

INTERPRETATION IN GENERIC MODEL

1. Quasars really have stellar dimensions, occasionally surrounded by nebulosity.
2. Light variations are not unusual in high-mass stellar-sized objects.
3. Such jets result from ordinary mass ejections, and are unremarkable in size.
4. Small mass transfers are occurring at ordinary velocities.
5. Higher mass quasars, which have higher redshifts, have larger associated nebulas.
6. Not surprising, since redshift does not indicate distance, but perhaps mass. Some of these objects are nearby.
7. Since redshift is not a distance indicator, no brightness-number relationship is expected. Objects with z > 2 have shorter lifetimes, e.g., because of their higher mass.
8. High redshift objects emit limited visible light. Low redshift objects are undistinguished and difficult to find.
9. Only nearby sources can give off detectable X-rays. Most galaxies are too far away to see their X-rays sources.
10. There is nothing unusual about such an X-ray flare in a high-mass star. No beaming is required.
11. No special problems arise.
12. Those galaxies are the parent of the associated quasars.
13. Association with parent galaxies plus gravitational lens effects, with foreground quasars lensing background galaxies.
14. This is the predicted quasar-parent galaxy relationship.
15. Quasars of distant galaxies are too faint to be visible.
16. Such quasars are nearby, and should therefore not display clustering. Redshift is not a distance indicator, so no voids should be evident.
17. The nearby galaxies and clusters are parent bodies for those quasars.
18. Lines are due to layers in the massive stellar object or its surrounding nebulosity, not intervening clouds. Cooler temperatures expected.
19. The absorption systems are due to layering in the quasar and its surrounding nebulosity. No linear or monotonic relationship with redshift is expected.
20. The magnetic field is that of the local parent galaxy of the quasar. Local galaxies have fields of about the measured strength.
21. Normal for stellar objects in a certain range of mass and temperature.

A careful examination of the middle column reveals that almost all of these observational features of quasars have explanations in the standard model. But it also reveals that most of these explanations were contrived after the properties were discovered, and are therefore ad hoc (ex post facto) helper hypotheses, serving the purpose of saving the feature of the standard model that quasar redshifts are distance indicators. The explanations do not flow naturally from the model until after the observations force a model amendment. By contrast, inspection of the last column reveals that most quasar properties become unremarkable if quasars are assumed to be nearby. Only a few arguments are ad hoc, and then perhaps only because of the lack of specificity of the generic model in this paper. That will be remedied with the publication of a new cosmology, the Meta Model, in early 1993.