How did the universe, which apparently began with an almost perfectly uniformly expanding Big Bang, evolve into the present exceedingly complex and granular structure of galaxies, clusters and superclusters of galaxies, and vast voids? Theories to account for this are best tested by observations of the changing clustering of objects over exceedingly great distances and look- back times toward the beginning. Only quasars are bright enough to permit this, but they are too few in number to define the early structure. Far more numerous absorbing objects exist between us and the distant quasars. Using an existing multifiber spectrograph (to be improved in the second year of the grant) and the McDonald Observatory 2.7-meter reflector to detect and ana- lyze the redshifts of these absorbing clouds along lines of sight to the quasars, the clustering of large numbers of otherwise undetectable high redshift objects can be described, thereby directly studying the evolution of large-scale structure in the universe. The effects of ionizing flux from quasars upon their local neutral hydrogen environment will also be measured, and the incidence of galaxy void sized holes in the neutral hydrogen distribution will be determined. Dr. Smith is the Director of McDonald Observatory, and has worked for many years in extragalactic studies. Dr. Crotts, the co- investigator, is a leading young instrumentalist.
