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G. Burbidge (Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California, San Diego), W.M. Napier (Armagh Observatory)
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 32 QSOs selected through their X-ray emission and proximity to bright comparatively nearby active galaxies. The redshift distributions of the samples are found to exhibit distinct peaks with a periodic separation of ~0.089 \log(1+z) identical to that claimed in earlier samples but now extended out to the higher redshift peaks at z = 2.63, 3.44 and 4.45, predicted by the formula but never seen before. The periodicity is also seen in the complete sample of 78 QSOs in the 3C and 3CR catalogues. It is present in these threee datasets at a high formal confidence level (10-6), and appears not to be explicable by spectroscopic or similar selection effects.