Abstract
Close QSO pairs can be used to test the cosmological interpretation of QSO redshifts. If (some of) the narrow absorption lines in QSO spectra arise in intervening matter, and if QSOs are surrounded by gaseous haloes or located in regions of high matter density (for example, clusters of galaxies), one may expect to find absorption in the spectrum of one QSO at the redshift of a foreground QSO which happens to be located nearby on the plane of the sky (‘associated absorption’). According to the cosmological interpretation, the foreground QSO should have the lower redshift. If, on the other hand, QSO redshifts are unrelated to their distances, one would expect to find as many cases in which the foreground QSO has the higher redshift of the two; or if the absorption lines are not even due to intervening matter, there should be no coincidences of absorption and emission redshifts beyond random expectation. Thus, by using associated absorption to distinguish which QSO of a pair is in front of the other, we have a simple and straightforward test of the cosmological interpretation.
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Shaver, P., Robertson, J. A new test of the cosmological interpretation of QSO redshifts. Nature 303, 155–156 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/303155a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/303155a0
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