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G. Burbidge

Publications and source records attributed to G. Burbidge.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2008

B2FH, the Cosmic Microwave Background and Cosmology

In this talk I shall start by describing how we set about and carried out the work which led to the publication of B2FH in 1957. I then shall try and relate this work and the circumstances that surrounded it to the larger problem of the origin and formation of the universe. Here it is necessary to look back at the way that ideas developed and how in many situations astronomers went astray. Of course this is a personal view, though I very strongly believe that if he were still here, it is the approach that Fred Hoyle would take. I start by describing the problems originally encountered by Gamow and his associates in trying to decide where the helium was made. This leads me to a modern discussion of the origin of 2D, 3He, 4He and 7Li, originally described by B2FH as due to the x-process. While it is generally argued, following Gamow, Alpher, and Herman, that these isotopes were synthesized in a big bang I shall show that it is equally likely that these isotopes were made in active galactic nuclei, as was the cosmic microwave background (CMB), in a cyclic universe model. The key piece of observational evidence is that the amount of energy carried by the CMB, namely about 4.5 x 10-13 erg cm-3

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arXiv2006

Ultraluminous X-ray Sources, High Redshift QSOs and Active Galaxies

It is shown that all of the 32 point X-ray sources which lie within about 10' of the centre of nearby galaxies, and which have so far been optically identified are high redshift objects - AGN or QSOs. Thus the surface density of these QSOs p similar or equal to 0.1 per square arc minute. Some of them were originally discovered as X-ray sources and classified as ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), nearly all of which lie near the centers of active galaxies. We demonstrate that this concentration around galactic nuclei is of high statistical significance: the probabiliy that p that they are accidental lies in the range one in a thousand to one in ten thousand, and apparently this excess cannot be accounted for by microlensing.

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arXiv2005

An anomalous concentration of QSOs around NGC 3079

It is shown that there are at least 21 QSOs within 1 degree of the nearby active spiral galaxy NGC3079. Many of them are bright (mag<18) so that the surface density of those closer than 15 arc minutes to the galaxy centre is close to 100 times the average in the field. The probability that this is an accidental configuration is shown to be less or equal to one in a million. Discovery selection effects and microlensing fail by a large factor to explain the phenomenon, suggesting that the QSOs may lie in the same physical space as NGC3079. However, two of them make up the apparently lensed pair 0957+561A, B whose lensing galaxy lies at z=0.355. This problem is discussed in the concluding section.

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arXiv2004

The Discovery of a High Redshift X-ray Emitting QSO Very Close to the Nucleus of NGC 7319

A strong X-ray source only 8" from the nucleus of the Sy2 galaxy NGC 7319 in Stephan's Quintet has been discovered by Chandra. We have identified the optical counterpart and show it is a QSO with $z_e = 2.114$. It is also a ULX with $L_x = 1.5 x 10^{40} erg sec^{-1}$. From the optical spectra of the QSO and interstellar gas in the galaxy (z = .022) we show that it is very likely that the QSO and the gas are interacting.

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arXiv2004

The double radio source 3C343.1: A galaxy-QSO pair with very different redshifts

The strong radio source 3C343.1 consists of a galaxy and a QSO separated by no more than about 0.25 arcsec. The chance of this being an accidental superposition is conservatively 10^-8. The z=0.344 galaxy is connected to the z=0.750 QSO by a radio bridge. The numerical relation between the two redshifts is that predicted from previous associations. This pair is an extreme example of many similar physical associations of QSOs and galaxies with very different redshifts.

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arXiv2003

QSOs Associated with Messier 82

The starburst / AGN galaxy M82 was studied by Dahlem, Weaver and Heckman using X-ray data from ROSAT and ASCA, as part of their X-ray survey of edge-on starburst galaxies. They found seventeen unresolved hard-X-ray sources around M82, in addition to its strong nuclear source, and other X-rays within the main body of M82. We have measured optical point sources at these positions, and have obtained redshifts of six candidates at the Keck I 10-m telescope, using the low-resolution imaging spectrograph (LRIS). All six are highly compact optical and X-ray objects with redshifts ranging from 0.111 to 1.086. They all show emission lines. The three with the highest redshifts are clearly QSOs. The others with lower redshifts may either be QSOs or compact emission-line galaxies. In addition to these six there are nine QSOs lying very close to M82 which were discovered many years ago. There is no difference between optical spectra of these latter QSOs, only two of which are known to be X-ray sources, and the X-ray emitting QSOs. The redshifts of all fifteen range between 0.111 and 2.05. The large number of QSOs and their apparent association with ejected matter from M82 suggest that they are physically associated with the galaxy, and have large intrinsic redshift components. If this is correct, the absolute magnitudes lie in the range -8 < M_v < -10. Also we speculate that the luminous variable X-ray source which has been detected by Chandra in the main body of M82 some 9 arcseconds from the center is another QSO in the process of ejection from the nucleus, and propose some observational tests of this hypothesis.

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arXiv2002

Inhomogeneities in the Microwave Background Radiation interpreted within the framework of the Quasi-Steady State Cosmology

We calculate the expected angular power spectrum of the temperature fluctuations in the microwave background radiation (MBR) generated in the quasi-steady state cosmology (QSSC). The paper begins with a brief description of how the background is produced and thermalized in the QSSC. We then discuss within the framework of a simple model, the likely sources of fluctuations in the background due to astrophysical and cosmological causes. Power spectrum peaks at $l \approx 6-10$, 180-220 and 600-900 are shown to be related in this cosmology respectively to curvature effects at the last minimum of the scale factor, clusters and groups of galaxies. The effect of clusters is shown to be related to their distribution in space as indicated by a toy model of structure formation in the QSSC. We derive and parameterize the angular power spectrum using six parameters related to the sources of temperature fluctuations at three characteristic scales. We are able to obtain a satisfactory fit to the observational band power estimates of MBR temperature fluctuation spectrum. Moreover, the values of `best fit' parameters are consistent with the range of expected values.

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arXiv2002

Interpretations of the Accelerating Universe

It is generally argued that the present cosmological observations support the accelerating models of the universe, as driven by the cosmological constant or `dark energy'. We argue here that an alternative model of the universe is possible which explains the current observations of the universe. We demonstrate this with a reinterpretation of the magnitude-redshift relation for Type Ia supernovae, since this was the test that gave a spurt to the current trend in favour of the cosmological constant.

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arXiv2001

Quasi-Steady State Cosmology

A brief historical account of modern cosmology shows that the standard big bang (BB) model, believed by so many, does not have the strong observational foundations that are frequently claimed for it. The theory of the Quasi-Steady State Cosmology (QSSC) and explosive cosmogony is outlined. Comparisons are made between the two theories in explaining the observed properties of the universe, namely, the expansion, chemical composition, CMB, QSO redshifts and explosive events, galaxy formation, and the m-z and theta-z relations. Only two of the observed properties have ever been predicted from the theories (a) the expansion predicted from Einstein's theory by Friedmann and Lemaitre, and (b) the acceleration predicted by the classical steady state theory and the QSSC.

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arXiv2001

Small Scale Fluctuations of the Microwave Background in the Quasi-Steady State Cosmology

In this paper we show that, within the framework of the QSSC, the small scale deviations on angular scales $\lesssim 1^{0}$ expected in the MBR are due to inhomogeneities in the distribution of galaxies and clusters. It is shown how these can be estimated on the galaxy-cluster-supercluster scale at the epoch of redshift $\sim 5$ when the universe was last passing through the minimum phase of the scale factor. Rich clusters on the scale of 5-10 Mpc generate the kind of peak in the fluctuation power spectrum observed by the Boomrang and Maxima projects. Weaker inhomogeneities on smaller scales with $l~\sim 10^3$ are expected to arise from individual galaxies and small groups.

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arXiv2000

The Distribution of Redshifts in New Samples of Quasi-stellar Objects

Two new samples of QSOs have been constructed from recent surveys to test the hypothesis that the redshift distribution of bright QSOs is periodic in $\log(1+z)$. The first of these comprises 57 different redshifts among all known close pairs or multiple QSOs, with image separations $\leq$ 10\arcsec, and the second consists of 39 QSOs selected through their X-ray emission and their proximity to bright comparatively nearby active galaxies. The redshift distributions of the samples are found to exhibit distinct peaks with a periodic separation of $\sim 0.089 $ in $\log(1+z)$ identical to that claimed in earlier samples but now extended out to higher redshift peaks $z = 2.63, 3.45$ and 4.47, predicted by the formula but never seen before. The periodicity is also seen in a third sample, the 78 QSOs of the 3C and 3CR catalogues. It is present in these three datasets at an overall significance level $10^{-5}$ - $10^{-6}$, and appears not to be explicable by spectroscopic or similar selection effects. Possible interpretations are briefly discussed.

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arXiv1996

Ejection of Matter and Energy from NGC 4258

It has been claimed that the megamaser observations of the nucleus of NGC 4258 show that a massive black hole is present in its center (Miyoshi et al. 1995, Greenhill et al. 1995). We show that the evidence of ejection of gas, radio plasma, and X-ray emitting QSOs from this nucleus all show that the ejection is coming from the center in a curving flow within a cone with angle ~40 degrees, centered at P.A. 100 degrees. This is close to the direction in which the velocities from the megamaser have been measured, so that the evidence taken as a whole suggests that the masering gas also is being ejected in the same direction at velocities +/- 900 km/sec and not rotating about a massive black hole. Thus it does not provide evidence for a black hole in the center. Subject headings: galaxies: nuclei: individual (NGC 4258) -- black holes -- masers

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arXiv1996

Very close pairs of Quasi-Stellar Objects

It is pointed out that there are now known four very close pairs of QSOs with separations < 5 arcsec and very different redshifts. Several estimates of the probability that they are accidental configurations range between 10^{-7} and 3.5 x 10^{-3}. We conclude either that this is further evidence that QSOs have significant non-cosmological redshift components, or that thave significant non-cosmological redshift components, or that the pairs must be explained by gravitational lensing.

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arXiv1994

Note on a Comment by Edward L. Wright

Recently Wright (1994, preprint) has criticized a paper of ours on the quasi-steady state cosmology (Hoyle et al. 1994, {\em M.N.R.A.S.,} {\bf 267,} 1007) arguing that the results from a radio source survey by Allington-Smith (1982 {\em M.N.R.A.S.,} {\bf 199,} 611) show that our model published in the paper referenced above is incorrect, and claiming farther that this result of his invalidates the quasi-steady state cosmology. In this paper we have dealt with his criticisms and have shown that he is wrong.

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