On the nature of the galactic population of 3EG sources
G.E.Romero, P.Benaglia
D.F. Torres
Abstract
We present the results of a study on the possible association of
unidentified gamma-ray sources in the 3EG Catalog with diffrerent types of
galactic objects such as Wolf-Rayet (WR) and Of stars, supernova remnants
(SNRs), and OB star associations (considered as pulsar tracers). We have
made simulations of large numbers of galactic populations of gamma-ray
sources in order to weight the statistical significance of the positional
coincidences. We have found that 6 EGRET detections are coincident with WR
stars, 4 with Of stars, 22 with SNRs, and 26 with OB associations. The
probability that all the SNR and OB coincindences were the pure effect of
chance is negligible ( < 10-5 and < 10-3, respectively). The
statistical support for the association of massive stars with EGRET
sources is not compelling (probabilities ~ 10-2-10-1). However,
we find that there are a posteriori arguments to support at least three
candidates for gamma-ray production in star systems with strong stellar
winds: WR 140, WR 142, and Cyg OB2 No. 5.
File translated from TEX by TTH, version 2.32.
On 16 Jul 1999, 09:18.