Astronomical Redshifts of Highly Ionized Regions
  Astronomical or cosmological redshifts are an observable property of
extragalactic objects and have historically been wholly attributed to the
recessional velocity of that object. The question of other, or intrinsic,
components of the redshift has been highly controversial since it was first
proposed. This paper investigates one theoretical source of intrinsic redshift
that has been identified. The highly ionized regions of Active Galactic Nuclei
(AGN) and Quasi-Stellar Objects (QSO) are, by definition, plasmas. All plasmas
have electromagnetic scattering characteristics that could contribute to the
observed redshift. To investigate this possibility, one region of a generalized
AGN was selected, the so called Broad Line Region (BLR). Even though
unresolvable with current instrumentation, physical estimates of this region
have been published for years in the astronomical literature. These data,
selected and then averaged, are used to construct an overall model that is
consistent with the published data to within an order of magnitude. The model
is then subjected to a theoretical scattering investigation. The results
suggest that intrinsic redshifts, derivable from the characteristics of the
ambient plasma, may indeed contribute to the overall observed redshift of these
objects.
