On the Galactic distribution of gamma-ray bursts

Abstract

Quashnock and Lamb (1993) defined a sub-sample of Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) from the publicly available BATSE database which shows clumping toward the galactic plane, and concluded that all GRBs are galactic in origin. The selection of these bursts (duplicated in this work in Sample 1) involved a peak countrate (in counts s-1) uncorrected for aspect. We assert that the peak flux of a burst is physically more meaningful than peak count-rate. Using, as limits, the corresponding peak fluxes (in photons cm-2 s-1) for the bursts in the QL sample, we find an additional 24 bursts, which we include in a new sample (Sample 2). We find that the significance of anisotropy in Sample 2 is much less than that of Sample 1, which does not support QL's interpretation of the anisotropies as being due to a galactic population. To make meaningful statistical statements regarding isotropy, burst samples must have peak fluxes above a minimum flux, set by the requirement that a burst be detectable from any direction (above the horizon) with respect to GRO, at any detection threshold at which a burst was observed in that sample. We find that a sample of such bursts has a marginal (2.6 sigma) deviation from isotropy, which we consider insufficient to justify the claim that GRBs are galactic in origin.