COMPTEL Location Images of Coincident Burst Pair

An all-sky map in Galactic coordinates indicating the positions of 18 cosmic gamma-ray bursts detected within the field of view of COMPTEL during the first three years of the CGRO mission. Shown are the maximum-likelihood contours for the burst locations, expressed in terms of location confidence. The mean uncertainty in burst location is on the order of one degree.

Highlighted are two of the COMPTEL-detected bursts (GRB 930704 and GRB 940301) that, within statistical errors, originate from the same direction of the sky, indicating the possibility of burst recurrence. The probability of such a coincidence occurring by chance given an isotropic distribution of bursts is estimated to be less than three percent. Independent measures of the burst locations by BATSE, EGRET, and the IPN can neither confirm nor deny that the two bursts originated from a single source. The possibility of gravitational lensing of emission from a single burst has been ruled out based on dissimilarities in light curves and spectra.

An all-sky map of 28 gamma-ray bursts detected by COMPTEL over the first four years of the CGRO mission is also available.

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