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BOSS Analysis of Quasars

The descriptions of the intended analysis of quasars by BOSS indicate this project is fatally flawed.
Attached is the SDSS III description.

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The SDSS-III's Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) will map the spatial distribution of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) and quasars to detect the characteristic scale imprinted by baryon acoustic oscillations in the early universe. Sound waves that propagate in the early universe, like spreading ripples in a pond, imprint a characteristic scale on cosmic microwave background fluctuations. These fluctuations have evolved into today's walls and voids of galaxies, meaning this baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale (about 150 Mpc) is visible among galaxies today.
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Apparently these oscillations can be characterized as sound waves.
It appears these oscillations are somehow extracted from analyzing red shifts.

Their analysis:

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In addition to constraining cosmological models, BOSS will deliver an outstanding sample of galaxies and quasars ideally suited to probing the formation and evolution of galaxies in the Universe. For example, we show below an example z =0.56 galaxy spectrum for early BOSS data which shows the level of spectral detail we can expect on these intermediate redshift galaxies. By studying the various key absorption features in this spectrum (labeled and shown with red tickmarks), we can estimate the age and metallicity of the stars in these galaxies, and thus determine how and when they formed. The sheer size of BOSS, coupled with the BOSS spectrograph resolution, will greatly enhance this area of science.


From a paper from Caltech titled:
Quasistellar Objects: Intervening Absorption Lines

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However, the vast majority of absorption lines in a typical quasar spectrum are ``intervening'', produced by gas unrelated to the quasar that is located along the line of sight between the quasar and the Earth.

A structure along the line of sight to the quasar can be described by its neutral Hydrogen column density, N(HI), the number of atoms per cm2. N(HI) is given by the product of the density of the material and the path length along the line of sight through the gas. Each structure will produce an absorption line in the quasar spectrum at a wavelength of lambda-obs = lambda-rest (1 + zabs), where zabs is the redshift of the absorbing gas and  lambda-rest = 1215.67 Angstroms is the rest wavelength of the Lyalpha transition. Since zabs <  the redshift of the quasar, these Lyalpha absorption lines form a ``forest'' at wavelengths blueward of the Lyalpha emission. The region redward of the Lyalpha emission will be populated only by absorption through other chemical transitions with longer lambda-rest. Historically, absorption systems with N(HI) < 1017.2 cm^2 have been called Lyalpha forest lines, those with 1017.2 < N(HI) < 1020.3 cm^2 are Lyman limit systems, and those with N(HI) > 1020.3 cm^2 are damped Lyalpha systems. The number of systems per unit redshift increases dramatically with decreasing column density, as illustrated in the schematic diagram in Figure 2. Lyman limit systems are defined by a sharp break in the spectrum due to absorption of photons capable of ionizing HI, i.e. those with energies greater than 13.6 eV.

Table 1 lists some of the metal lines that are commonly detected for intervening absorption systems. Many of these are only strong enough to be observable for quasar lines of sight that pass through the higher N(HI) regions of galaxies.
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My comment (without attaching the study):
Table 1 includes wavelengths for Hydrogen, Silicon, Carbon, Iron, Magnesium.These lines are also observed in the BOSS spectra.

My conclusion:

This Caltech study concluded all the absorption lines are from atoms in 'intervening space' above the quasar core. This is consistent with knowing an absorption line can occur with that atom anywhere between source and observer.

The critical mistake in the BOSS analysis above: the absorption line shifts are being analyzed as if they indicate the motion of the quasar. These are intervening atoms not the quasar!

These lines are also assumed to indicate the elements present in the stars in the galaxy. That is also invalid; only the spectrum of the star will reveal its elements, not loose atoms outside the star.

Currently the critical mistake is made with the quasar's hydrogen atom's emission line red shift as indicating the velocity of the quasar. This is clearly a mistake to treat the object behind the atom as moving at the same extreme velocity.

Because that critical mistake has never been fixed, the same mistake is being repeated again - with BOSS.

Instead of BOSS enhanc[ing] this area of science' BOSS is providing bad results.

This 'area of science' is immune to fundamental progress.

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