Abstract
We present final results of a deep, near-infrared imaging survey of a predetermined, consistent sample of gamma-ray burst localizations. This systematic study, conducted from 1994–1996, is the first to be designed specifically to examine the extragalactic content of these regions of sky. JHK images of nine of the smallest error boxes from the third Interplanetary Network together with 70 arcmin2 of control fields were obtained, reaching levels up to 200 times fainter than previous infrared studies of burst locations. An overabundance of brighter galaxies exists in the gamma-ray burst images at the 98% significance level, indicating that the bursts are not positioned randomly with respect to galaxies. As a group, the brightest galaxy within each error box is consistent with a random population of galaxies, both in brightness and position within the boxes. This suggests that either the true host galaxies are fainter, or the error boxes do not point accurately to the hosts.
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