Linear Size Evolution and Luminosity Selection Effects in Quasars

Abstract

We have quantitatively estimated the amount of luminosity selection effects present in the observed linear size-redshift data for a large sample of extended steep spectrum quasars. We show that ~90% of the observed dependence of sizes of quasars on redshift can be interpreted in terms of luminosity selection effects alone. This gives quantitative support to earlier results which show that little or no intrinsic linear size evolution appears to be occurring among quasars.