Abstract
It has been shown that no correlation exists between the
inferred ejection velocities of quasar absorption lines and the
intrinsic continuum flux. In the absence of a net force on the
absorbing clouds this disproves intrinsic models which rely on
radiative acceleration for the production of these lines.
It has also been shown that there is a statistically significant
excess of quasar alignments over that expected at a specific
deviation (four arc - seconds) of the central object from the line
defined by the outlying members. The narrowness of this peak makes
it difficult to explain as the product of simple quasar
clustering.
Observation at high spectral resolution om two quasars lying in
such alignments has shown no significant deviations of the
absorption line distribution from the norm. Assuming that this is
true for all such objects and that a significant proportion of the
quasar redshift is gravitational then the observed upper limits on
the rate of change of absorption line redshifts has enabled lower
bounds to be placed upon the central mass. The derived masses are
very large and apparently in conflict with galactic stability
arguments.
Number / magnitude distributions have been determined for two
samples of quasar candidates which were previously uncalibrated.