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Old November 6th 05, 06:13 PM
Steve Willner
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Default Conjecture on Baez's 'Quasar without a host galaxy'

In article ,
"Robin Whittle" writes:
A more reliable source of information about quasar proper motion
than http://laserstars.org is:

Quasar Apparent Proper Motion Observed by Geodetic VLBI Networks
D. S. MacMillan 30 Sep 2003 The 10th Anniversary of the VLBA
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0309826


I don't know that it's "more reliable," but it's certainly more
modern and shows what VLBI can do. If QSOs really are ejected from
nearby galaxies (out to 30 Mpc or so), VLBI ought to detect proper
motion. As you say, there will be some confusion with internal
motions in the QSOs, but those should show no preferential
orientation if the putative "parent galaxy" is really a foreground
object.

Notice also that the proper motion observations are complementary to
the statistical association studies. If the ejection velocity is
low, the QSO stays close to the parent galaxy for a long time, and
there ought to be an obvious concentration of QSOs around galaxies.
(There isn't.) If on the other hand the ejection velocity is high,
proper motions ought to be obvious.

I had a brief search to see whether the individual proper motions had
been published and didn't find anything. Someone interested in
pursuing the matter could contact MacMillan.

--
Steve Willner Phone 617-495-7123
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
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