Evidence That Gamma-Ray Burst Sources Repeat

Abstract

We investigate clustering in the angular distribution of the 260 $\gamma$-ray bursts in the publicly available BATSE catalogue, using a nearest neighbour analysis and the measures of burst brightness $B$ and short time scale variability $V$ which we introduced earlier. We find that while all 260 bursts are only modestly clustered (Q-value = $1.8 \times 10^{-2}$), the 202 bursts in this sample for which the statistical error in their locations is $<9^\circ$ are significantly clustered on an angular scale $\approx 5^\circ$ (Q-value = $2.5 \times 10^{-4}$, taking into acoount having chosen the cutoff in the statistical error). We also find a significant correlation between bright type I bursts and faint type I and type II bursts on an angular scale $\approx 5^\circ$ (Q-value = $4.0 \times 10^{-3}$). This angular scale is smaller than the typical (statistical plus systematic) error in burst locations of $6.8^\circ$, suggesting multiple recurrences from individual sources. We conclude that ``classical'' $\gamma$-ray burst sources repeat on a time scale of months, and that many faint type I and II bursts come from the sources of bright type I bursts.