The angular diameter-redshift test for quasi-stellar radio sources with large redshifts

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Abstract
The overall angular sizes of the radio structures of a complete sample of 40 quasars in the 3CR catalogue and of 19 quasars which have redshifts greater than 1.5 in two complete samples of quasars in the 4C catalogue have been determined. The angular diameter–redshift plot for bright radio sources is re-determined using improved knowledge of the radio structures, and the possibility that there is a change in the overall physical size of the radio structures of quasars of the same intrinsic luminosity with redshift is tested. The angular size distributions of the quasars in the 3CR and 4C samples are compared quantitatively for different cosmological models. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the overall physical sizes of the radio structures of quasars with the highest radio luminosity do not change with cosmological epoch. However, because of the small statistical sample, the results are also consistent with weak evolution of the physical sizes with cosmological epoch, for example with the relation |$D\propto(1+z)^{-n}$|⁠, n = 1.0−1.5.

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