Abstract
RECENT measurements by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory Satellite suggest that the distribution of γ-ray burst sources is isotropic about the Earth's position but also radially non-uniform1. Studies of their spectral and temporal properties2, however, suggest that many bursts originate on or near neutron stars, presumed to be part of the local galactic population. We show here that no single class of bursts, either galactic or cosmological in origin, can explain all of these observations, but argue instead that the constraints can be reconciled if there are at least two distinct classes of bursts. As a specific example we consider two kinds of burst which both originate on galactic neutron stars, but which differ in intrinsic luminosity by a factor of 105.
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Lingenfelter, R., Higdon, J. Two-population model for the sources of γ-ray bursts. Nature 356, 132–133 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1038/356132a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/356132a0
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