Correlations among Gamma‐Ray Burst Properties
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Abstract
Gamma-ray bursts are mysterious flashes of gamma radiation the properties of which have shown virtually no significant, nondefinitional correlations or bimodalities. The physical processes which relate burst properties to one another could be revealed by finding significant relations. In the past, searches for correlations and bimodalities in the data have been made for a relatively small set of properties. We present the results of a systematic search for statistically significant correlations and bimodalities from a set of 49 burst properties, with particular attention paid to the establishment and inclusion of light-curve characteristics. We have used the database of the 260 bursts in the IB catalog of BATSE. No unpublished, significant, nondefinitional correlations correlations were found, nor were any original, nonsystematic bimodalities observed. Our method recovered the known correlation between the log of duration and spectral hardness with a probability that the result is a random fluctuation of 9.3 × 10-5. The previously reported bimodality in the logarithm of duration was recovered. © 1998. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.