A Systematic Search for Short-Term Variability of EGRET Sources

P. M. Wallace, N. J. Griffis

D. L. Bertsch, R. C. Hartman, D. J. Thompson

D. A. Kniffen

S. D. Bloom

Abstract

The 3rd EGRET catalog contains 170 unidentified gamma-ray sources, and there is great interest in the nature of these sources. One means of determining source class is the study of flux variability on time scales of days; pulsars are believed to be stable on these time scales while blazars are known to be highly variable. In addition, previous work has led to the discovery of GRO 1838-04, a candidate for a new gamma-ray source class. This source near the Galactic plane displays transient behavior but cannot be associated with any known blazars. These considerations have led us to conduct a systematic search for short-term variability in EGRET data, covering all viewing periods through cycle 4. Preliminary results indicate that strong short-term variability is not a characteristic of most EGRET sources.

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On 16 Jul 1999, 09:19.