Anisotropy in the angular distribution of the long gamma-ray bursts?

Abstract

The gamma-ray bursts detected by the BATSE instrument may be separated into "short", "intermediate" and "long" subgroups. Previous statistical tests found an anisotropic sky-distribution on large angular scales for the intermediate subgroup, and probably also for the short subgroup. In this article the description and the results of a further statistical test - namely the nearest neighbour analysis - are given. Surprisingly, this test gives an anisotropy for the long subgroup on small angular scales. The discussion of this result suggests that this anisotropy may be real.