RUI: Quasar Investigations

本基金旨在支持研究将离散物体的功率谱分析方法从二维扩展到三维，然后将所得程序应用于类星体位置的分析。新的程序应避免与分布的等距抽样有关的问题（只有在超过奈奎斯特尺度的尺度上才能检测到变化），并充分利用所有可用的数据。它还将提供一种替代两点相关函数的方法来查看数据。由于一个分布的功率谱是自相关函数的傅里叶变换，因此三维功率谱应等同于类星体自相关函数的评估。该项目的主要数据库将是新的Burbidge和Hewitt（1987）准恒星天体目录，将从中选择子集。新程序的应用应该会对三维类星体群集的规模这一明显令人烦恼的问题有所启发。

This grant is to suppport research to extend the method of power spectrum analysis of discrete objects from two to three dimensions, and then to apply the resulting procedure to the analysis of quasar positions. The new procedure should avoid the problem associated with equidistant sampling of a distribution (only variations on scales exceeding the Nyquist scale can be detected), and make full use of all the data available. It will also provide an alternative to the two-point correlation function as a way of looking at the data. Since the power spectrum of a distribution is the Fourier transform of the autocorrelation function, the three dimensional power spectrum should be equivalent to the evaluation of the quasar autocorrelation function. The principal data base for the project will be the new Burbidge and Hewitt (1987) catalog of quasi-stellar objects, from which subsets will be selected. The application of the new procedure should shed some light on the apparently vexing question of the scale of quasar clustering in three dimensions.