Is the Rate of γ-Ray Bursts Constant?

Details Is the Rate of γ-Ray Bursts Constant? Is the Rate of γ-Ray Bursts Constant?

Apr 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997aps..apr.a1214s&link_type=abstract

American Physical Society, APS/AAPT Joint Meeting, April 18-21, 1997, abstract #A12.14

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The origin of γ-ray bursts remains one of the most intriguing mysteries in astrophysics today. Observations still allow a wide range of distance scales for the sources from cosmological to heliospheric. The SMM γ-ray spectrometer detected 132 bursts >300 keV from 1980 to 1989 using a standard computer algorithm. We divided this observing period into 12 intervals each of 283 days, corrected for relative exposure. Assuming the rates to be constant yields an acceptable fit (\chi^2 = 13.3 for 11 dof). However, there is weak evidence (95% confidence) for a correlation of the bursts with solar activity. (Share et al., Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 97, 341 (1993).) There are three contiguous time intervals from about 1986 January to about 1988 April, corresponding to the latter half of solar minimum, which are responsible for this effect. The average rate in these intervals is 6.0 ± 1.4/interval compared with a rate of 12.1 ± 1.7/ interval for the remaining nine intervals. If this difference is physical in origin, it would imply that at least some of the γ-ray bursts are associated with the heliosphere and the solar cycle. If this is true, we would expect the BATSE experiment on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory to observe a decrease in the burst rate for 2--3 yr beginning mid/late 1996 or early 1997.

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