title: Using quasars as standard clocks for measuring cosmological redshift.
abstract: We report hitherto unnoticed patterns in quasar light curves. We characterize segments of the quasar's light curves with the slopes of the straight lines fit through them. These slopes appear to be directly related to the quasars' redshifts. Alternatively, using only global shifts in time and flux, we are able to find significant overlaps between the light curves of different pairs of quasars by fitting the ratio of their redshifts. We are then able to reliably determine the redshift of one quasar from another. This implies that one can use quasars as standard clocks, as we explicitly demonstrate by constructing two independent methods of finding the redshift of a quasar from its light curve.
authors.affiliation: Astrophysics, Cosmology and Gravity Centre, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Private Bag, 7700, South Africa.
authors.forename: De-Chang
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Glenn D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Starkman
authors.forename: Branislav
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stojkovic
authors.forename: Dejan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stojkovic
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weltman