Search

Several hundred gamma-ray burst (GRB) redshifts have been determined to date. One of the other important properties-besides the distance-of the GRBs is the duration of the burst. In this paper, we analyse these two important quantities of the phenomena. In this paper, we map the two-dimensional distribution and explore some suspicious areas. As it is well known that the short GRBs are closer than the others, we search for parts in the Universe where the GRB duration is different from the others. We also analyse whether there are any ranges in the duration where the redshifts differ. We find some suspicious areas, however, no other significant region was found than the short GRB region., Comment: Manuscript accepted for publication in Universe

The different elemental abundances of the photosphere and the corona are striking features of not only the Sun, but other stars as well. This phenomenon is known as the FIP effect (FIP stands for first ionization potential), and its strength can be characterized by the FIP bias, the logarithmic abundance difference between low- and high-FIP elements in the corona, compared to the photosphere. The FIP bias was shown to depend on the surface temperature of the star. We compiled FIP bias and other parameters for 59 stars for which coronal composition is available, now including evolved stars. Using principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis, we searched for correlations with other astrophysical parameters within the sample which may influence the stellar FIP bias. Adding stars to the $T_{\rm eff}-$FIP bias diagram unveiled new features in its structure. In addition to the previously known relationship, there appears to be a second branch, a parallel sequence about 0.5 dex above it. While the $T_{\rm eff}$ remains the main determinant of the FIP bias, other parameters such as stellar activity indicators also have influence. We find three clusters in the FIP bias determinant parameter space. One distinct group is formed by the evolved stars. Two groups contain main sequence stars in continuation separated roughly by the sign change of the FIP-bias value. The new branch of the $T_{\rm eff}-$FIP bias diagram contains stars with higher activity level, in terms of X-ray flux and rotational velocity. The two main sequence clusters run from the earliest spectral types of A-F with shallow convection zones through G-K-early M stars with gradually deeper convection zones, and end up with the fully convective M dwarf stars, depicting the change of the dynamo type with the internal differences of the main sequence stars in connection with the FIP-bias values., Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables, accepted by A&A

At peak, long-duration gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous sources of electromagnetic radiation known. Since their progenitors are massive stars, they provide a tracer of star formation and star-forming galaxies over the whole of cosmic history. Their bright power-law afterglows provide ideal backlights for absorption studies of the interstellar and intergalactic medium back to the reionization era. The proposed THESEUS mission is designed to detect large samples of GRBs at $z>6$ in the 2030s, at a time when supporting observations with major next generation facilities will be possible, thus enabling a range of transformative science. THESEUS will allow us to explore the faint end of the luminosity function of galaxies and the star formation rate density to high redshifts; constrain the progress of re-ionisation beyond $z\gtrsim6$; study in detail early chemical enrichment from stellar explosions, including signatures of Population III stars; and potentially characterize the dark energy equation of state at the highest redshifts., Comment: Submitted to Experimental Astronomy

The afterglow of a gamma ray burst (GRB) can give us valuable insight into the properties of its host galaxy. To correctly interpret the spectra of the afterglow we need to have a good understanding of the foreground interstellar medium (ISM) in our own Galaxy. The common practice to correct for the foreground is to use neutral hydrogen (HI) data from the Leiden/Argentina/Bonn (LAB) survey. However, the poor spatial resolution of the single dish data may have a significant effect on the derived column densities. To investigate this, we present new high-resolution HI observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) towards 4 GRBs. We combine the interferometric ATCA data with single dish data from the Galactic All Sky Survey (GASS) and derive new Galactic HI column densities towards the GRBs. We use these new foreground column densities to fit the Swift XRT X-ray spectra and calculate new intrinsic hydrogen column density values for the GRB host galaxies. We find that the new ATCA data shows higher Galactic HI column densities compared to the previous single dish data, which results in lower intrinsic column densities for the hosts. We investigate the line of sight optical depth near the GRBs and find that it may not be negligible towards one of the GRBs, which indicates that the intrinsic hydrogen column density of its host galaxy may be even lower. In addition, we compare our results to column densities derived from far-infrared data and find a reasonable agreement with the HI data., Comment: 20 pages, 13 Figures, Accepted by MNRAS

Gy\"orgy Pa\'al, the Hungarian cosmologist died in 1992. This article was published twenty-five years later in the Hungarian Astronomical Association (HAA, MCSE in Hungarian) 2017 yearbook for his memory. After short introduction of the history of cosmology we briefly introduce the XX. century cosmological discoveries. For his early years G. Pa\'al studied the large-scale inhomogeneity in the Universe. He was one of the first astronomer who realized some periodicity in the quasar redshift distribution. In the early 90s he also studied the galaxy redshift distribution in the so-called pencil-beam survey and suggested the quasi periodicity can be cause of the late inflation in the Universe namely the Lambda cosmological constant., Comment: was published in the Hungarian Astronomical Association (HAA, MCSE in Hungarian) 2017 yearbook

GRB170817A, associated with the LIGO-Virgo GW170817 neutron-star merger event, lacks the short duration and hard spectrum of a Short gamma-ray burst (GRB) expected from long-standing classification models. Correctly identifying the class to which this burst belongs requires comparison with other GRBs detected by the Fermi GBM. The aim of our analysis is to classify Fermi GRBs and to test whether or not GRB170817A belongs - as suggested - to the Short GRB class. The Fermi GBM catalog provides a large database with many measured variables that can be used to explore gamma-ray burst classification. We use statistical techniques to look for clustering in a sample of 1298 gamma-ray bursts described by duration and spectral hardness. Classification of the detected bursts shows that GRB170817A most likely belongs to the Intermediate, rather than the Short GRB class. We discuss this result in light of theoretical neutron-star merger models and existing GRB classification schemes. It appears that GRB classification schemes may not yet be linked to appropriate theoretical models, and that theoretical models may not yet adequately account for known GRB class properties. We conclude that GRB170817A may not fit into a simple phenomenological classification scheme., Comment: accepted in APSS

We present the first simultaneous photometric and spectroscopic investigation of a large set of RR Lyrae variables in a globular cluster. The radial-velocity data presented comprise the largest sample of RVs of RR Lyrae stars ever obtained. The target is M3; $BVI_{\mathrm{C}}$ time-series of 111 and $b$ flux data of further 64 RRab stars, and RV data of 79 RR Lyrae stars are published. Blazhko modulation of the light curves of 47 percent of the RRab stars are detected. The mean value of the center-of-mass velocities of RR Lyrae stars is $-146.8$ km s$^{-1}$ with 4.52 km s$^{-1}$ standard deviation, which is in good agreement with the results obtained for the red giants of the cluster. The ${\Phi_{21}}^{\mathrm RV}$ phase difference of the RV curves of RRab stars is found to be uniformly constant both for the M3 and for Galactic field RRab stars; no period or metallicity dependence of the ${\Phi_{21}}^{\mathrm RV}$ is detected. The Baade-Wesselink distances of 26 non-Blazhko variables with the best phase-coverage radial-velocity curves are determined; the corresponding distance of the cluster, $10480\pm210$ pc, agrees with the previous literature information. A quadratic formula for the $A_{\mathrm{puls}}-A_V$ relation of RRab stars is given, which is valid for both OoI and OoII variables. We also show that the $(V-I)_0$ of RRab stars measured at light minimum is period dependent, there is at least 0.1 mag difference between the colours at minimum light of the shortest- and longest-period variables., Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

The Fermi collaboration identified a possible electromagnetic counterpart of the gravitational wave event of September 14, 2015. Our goal is to provide an unsupervised data analysis algorithm to identify similar events in Fermi's Gamma-ray Burst Monitor CTTE data stream. We are looking for signals that are typically weak. Therefore, they can only be found by a careful analysis of count rates of all detectors and energy channels simultaneously. Our Automatized Detector Weight Optimization (ADWO) method consists of a search for the signal, and a test of its significance. We developed ADWO, a virtual detector analysis tool for multi-channel multi-detector signals, and performed successful searches for short transients in the data-streams. We have identified GRB150522B, as well as possible electromagnetic candidates of the transients GW150914 and LVT151012. ADWO is an independently developed, unsupervised data analysis tool that only relies on the raw data of the Fermi satellite. It can therefore provide a strong, independent test to any electromagnetic signal accompanying future gravitational wave observations., Comment: 4 pages and 4 figures, A&A Letters accepted

Short and long bursts were identified by the BATSE team in the early 90s. A decade ago there were some suggestions about the intermediate duration type of bursts. We are going to summarize recent analyses of the duration distributions of the Beppo-Sax and Swift data. Our conclusion is all the three satellites (CGRO, Swift, Beppo-Sax) can see the third type of the GRBs. The properties of the group members are very similar in the different data sets., Comment: In Chincarini G, DAvanzo P, Margutti R, Salvaterra R (eds.) The Shocking Universe, Gamma Ray Bursts and High Energy Shock Phenomena. San Servolo, Italy, 2009.09.14-2009.09.18. Italian Physical Society, p. 443. (Italian Physical Society Conference Proceedings, 102. )

We studied the unbiased optical brightness distribution which was calculated from the survival analysis of host galaxies and its relationship with the Swift GRB data of the host galaxies observed by the Keck telescopes. Based on the sample obtained from merging the Swift GRB table and the Keck optical data we also studied the dependence of this distribution on the data of the GRBs. Finally, we compared the HGs distribution with standard galaxies distribution which is in the DEEP2 galaxies catalog., Comment: Swift: 10 Years of Discovery. Conference paper. 2-5 December 2014. La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy

According to the cosmological principle, Universal large-scale structure is homogeneous and isotropic. The observable Universe, however, shows complex structures even on very large scales. The recent discoveries of structures significantly exceeding the transition scale of 370 Mpc pose a challenge to the cosmological principle. We report here the discovery of the largest regular formation in the observable Universe; a ring with a diameter of 1720 Mpc, displayed by 9 gamma ray bursts (GRBs), exceeding by a factor of five the transition scale to the homogeneous and isotropic distribution. The ring has a major diameter of $43^o$ and a minor diameter of $30^o$ at a distance of 2770 Mpc in the 0.78

The Fermi GBM Catalog has been recently published. Previous classification analyses of the BATSE, RHESSI, BeppoSAX, and Swift databases found three types of gamma-ray bursts. Now we analyzed the GBM catalog to classify the GRBs. PCA and Multiclustering analysis revealed three groups. Validation of these groups, in terms of the observed variables, shows that one of the groups coincides with the short GRBs. The other two groups split the long class into a bright and dim part, as defined by the peak flux. Additional analysis is needed to determine whether this splitting is only a mathematical byproduct of the analysis or has some real physical meaning., Comment: Proceedings of the Gamma-Ray Bursts 2012 Conference (GRB 2012). May 7-11, 2012. Munich, Germany. Published online at http://pos.sissa.it/cgi-bin/reader/conf.cgi?confid=152, id.46

The statistical tests - done by the authors - are surveyed, which verify the null-hypothesis of the intrinsic randomness in the angular distribution of gamma-ray bursts collected at BATSE Catalog. The tests use the counts-in-cells method, an analysis of spherical harmonics, a test based on the two-point correlation function and a method based on multiscale methods. The tests suggest that the intermediate subclass of gamma-ray bursts are distributed anisotropically., Comment: Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Afterglow Era: Proceedings of the International Workshop Held in Rome, Italy, 17-20 October 2000, ESO ASTROPHYSICS SYMPOSIA. ISBN 3-540-42771-6. Edited by E. Costa, F. Frontera, and J. Hjorth. Springer-Verlag, 2001, p. 47

One of the most important task of the Gamma-Ray Burst field is the classification of the bursts. Many researches have proven the existence of the third kind (intermediate duration) of GRBs in the BATSE data. Recent works have analyzed BeppoSax and Swift observations and can also identify three types of GRBs in the data sets. However, the class memberships are probabilistic we have enough observed redshifts to calculate the redshift and spatial distribution of the intermediate GRBs. They are significantly farther than the short bursts and seems to be closer than the long ones., Comment: AIP Conference Proceedings; 1358. pp. 235-238

The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) has observed more than 80,000 solar energetic events since its launch on February $12^{\rm th}$, 2002. Using this large sample of observed flares, we studied the spatio-temporal relationship between succeeding flares. Our results show that the statistical relationship between the temporal and spatial differences of succeeding flares can be described as a power law of the form $R(t)\sim t^p$ with $p=0.327\pm 0.007$. We discuss the possible interpretations of this result as a characteristic function of a supposed underlying physics. Different scenarios are considered to explain this relation, including the case where the connectivity between succeeding events is realised through a shock wave in the post Sedov-Taylor phase or where the spatial and temporal relationship between flares is supposed to be provided by an expanding flare area in the sub-diffusive regime. Furthermore, we cannot exclude the possibility that the physical process behind the statistical relationship is the reordering of the magnetic field by the flare or it is due to some unknown processes., Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures

We investigated the main prompt and afterglow emission parameters of gamma-ray bursts detected by the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) and X-Ray Telescope installed on the Swift satellite. Our aim was to look for differences or connections between the different types of gamma-ray bursts, so we compared the BAT fluences, 1-sec peak photon fluxes, photon indices, XRT early fluxes, initial temporal decay and spectral indices. We found that there might be a connection between the XRT initial decay index and XRT early flux/BAT photon index. Using statistical tools we also determined that beside the duration and hardness ratios, the means of the \gamma- and X-ray--fluences and the \gamma-ray photon index differ significantly between the three types of bursts., Comment: 7th Huntsville Gamma-Ray Burst Symposium, GRB 2013: paper 27 in eConf Proceedings C1304143

We studied the distribution of the GRBs, observed by the Fermi satellite, in the multidimensional parameter space consisting of the duration, Fluence, Peak flux and Peak energy (if it was available). About 10% of the Fermi bursts was observed also by the Swift satellite. We did not find significant differences between the Peak flux and Peak energy of GRBs observed and not observed also by the Swift satellite. In contrast, those GRBs detected also by the Swift satellite had significantly greater Fluence and duration. We did a similar study for the GRBs detected by the Swift satellite. About 30% percent of these bursts was also measured by the Fermi satellite. We found a significant difference in the Fluence, Peak flux and Photon index but none in duration. These differences may be accounted for the different construction and observing strategy of the Fermi and Swift satellites., Comment: 7th Huntsville Gamma-Ray Burst Symposium, GRB 2013: paper 5 in eConf Proceedings C1304143

The Swift satellite made a real break through with measuring simultaneously the gamma X-ray and optical data of GRBs, effectively. Although, the satellite measures the gamma, X-ray and optical properties almost in the same time a significant fractions of GRBs remain undetected in the optical domain. In a large number of cases only an upper bound is obtained. Survival analysis is a tool for studying samples where a part of the cases has only an upper (lower) limit. The obtained survival function may depend on some other variables. The Cox regression is a way to study these dependencies. We studied the dependence of the optical brightness (obtained by the UVOT) on the gamma and X-ray properties, measured by the BAT and XRT on board of the Swift satellite. We showed that the gamma peak flux has the greatest impact on the afterglow's optical brightness while the gamma photon index and the X-ray flux do not. This effect probably originates in the energetics of the jet launched from the central engine of the GRB which triggers the afterglow., Comment: 2012 Fermi Symposium proceedings - eConf C121028

Gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous events in the Universe. Going beyond the short-long classification scheme we work in the context of three burst populations with the third group of intermediate duration and softest spectrum. We are looking for physical properties which discriminate the intermediate duration bursts from the other two classes. We use maximum likelihood fits to establish group memberships in the duration-hardness plane. To confirm these results we also use k-means and hierarchical clustering. We use Monte-Carlo simulations to test the significance of the existence of the intermediate group and we find it with 99.8% probability. The intermediate duration population has a significantly lower peak-flux (with 99.94% significance). Also, long bursts with measured redshift have higher peak-fluxes (with 98.6% significance) than long bursts without measured redshifts. As the third group is the softest, we argue that we have {related} them with X-ray flashes among the gamma-ray bursts. We give a new, probabilistic definition for this class of events., Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ

Gamma-ray bursts are usually classified through their high-energy emission into short-duration and long-duration bursts, which presumably reflect two different types of progenitors. However, it has been shown on statistical grounds that a third, intermediate population is needed in this classification scheme, although an extensive study of the properties of this class has so far not been done. The large amount of follow-up studies generated during the Swift era allows us to have a suficient sample to attempt a study of this third population through the properties of their prompt emission and their afterglows. Our study is focused on a sample of GRBs observed by Swift during its first four years of operation. The sample contains those bursts with measured redshift since this allows us to derive intrinsic properties. Intermediate bursts are less energetic and have dimmer afterglows than long GRBs, especially when considering the X-ray light curves, which are on average one order of magnitude fainter than long bursts. There is a less significant trend in the redshift distribution that places intermediate bursts closer than long bursts. Except for this, intermediate bursts show similar properties to long bursts. In particular, they follow the Epeak vs. Eiso correlation and have, on average, positive spectral lags with a distribution similar to that of long bursts. Like long GRBs, they normally have an associated supernova, although some intermediate bursts have shown no supernova component. This study shows that intermediate bursts are different from short bursts and, in spite of sharing many properties with long bursts, there are some differences between them as well. We suggest that the physical difference between intermediate and long bursts could be that for the first the ejecta are thin shells while for the latter they are thick shells., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 16 pages, 17 figures, 5 tables

The Gamma Ray Inverse Problem is discussed. Four methods of spectral deconvolution are presented here and applied to the BATSE's MER data type. We compare these to the Band spectra., Comment: 3 pages, one figure

As GRBs trace the high-z Universe, there is a non-negligible probability of a lensing effect being imprinted on the lightcurves of the bursts. We propose to search for lensed candidates with a cross-correlation method, by looking at bursts days to years apart coming from the same part of the sky. We look for similarities and hypothesize a Singular Isothermal Sphere (SIS) model for the lens. A lensed pair would enable us to constrain the mass of the lensing object. Our search did not reveal any gravitationally lensed events., Comment: 2009 Fermi Symposium - to appear in eConf Proceedings C091122

The power spectra of 457 short BATSE bursts were analyzed, focusing on the 64 ms lightcurves' tails in the low energy bands. Using MC simulations, 22 GRBs were identified with unusually high harmonic power above 0.03 Hz. The sky distribution of these bursts shows an extraordinarily strong dipole moment with a 99.994% significance., Comment: 2009 Fermi Symposium - to appear in eConf Proceedings C091122

Two classes of gamma-ray bursts were identified in the BATSE catalogs characterized by their durations. There were also some indications for the existence of a third type of gamma-ray bursts. Swift satellite detectors have different spectral sensitivity than pre-Swift ones for GRBs. Therefore in this paper we analyze the bursts' duration distribution and also the duration-hardness bivariate distribution, published in The First BAT Catalog. Similarly to the BATSE data, to explain the BAT GRBs' duration distribution three components are needed. Although, the relative frequencies of the groups are different than they were in the BATSE GRB sample, the difference in the instrument spectral sensitivities can explain this bias in a natural way. This means theoretical models may have to explain three different type of gamma-ray bursts., Comment: paper for the 2009 Fermi Symposium Proceedings

Two classes of gamma-ray bursts have been identified in the BATSE catalogs characterized by durations shorter and longer than about 2 seconds. There are, however, some indications for the existence of a third type of burst. Swift satellite detectors have different spectral sensitivity than pre-Swift ones for gamma-ray bursts. Therefore it is worth to reanalyze the durations and their distribution and also the classification of GRBs. Using The First BAT Catalog the maximum likelihood estimation was used to analyzed the duration distribution of GRBs. The three log-normal fit is significantly (99.54 % probability) better than the two for the duration distribution. Monte-Carlo simulations also confirm this probability (99.2 %)., Comment: NANJING GAMMA-RAY BURST CONFERENCE 2008

After the discovery of the anisotropy in the sky-distribution of intermediate gamma-ray bursts recently also the distribution of the short gamma-ray bursts is proven to be anisotropic. The impact of these behaviors on the validity of the cosmological principle is shortly discussed., Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of the Sixth Huntsville Gamma-Ray Burst Symposium, edited by C.A. Meegan, N. Gehrels, and C. Kouveliotou

In a systematic search of the OTs at GRBs the Swift satellite determined only an upper limit of the apparent brightness in a significant fraction of cases. Combining these upper limits with the really measured OT brightness we obtained a sample well suited to survival analysis. Performing a Kaplan-Meier product limit estimation we obtained an unbiased cumulative distribution of the V visual brightness. The lg(N(V)) logarithmic cumulative distribution can be well fitted with a linear function of V in the form of lg(N(V))= 0.234 V + const. We studied the dependence of V on the gamma ray properties of the bursts. We tested the dependence on the fluence, T90 duration and peak flux. We found a dependence on the peak flux on the 99.7% significance level.

Using the discriminant analysis of the multivariate statistical analysis we compared the distribution of the physical quantities of the optically dark and bright GRBs, detected by the BAT and XRT on board of the Swift Satellite. We found that the GRBs having detected optical transients (OT) have systematically higher peak fluxes and lower HI column densities than those without OT., Comment: Santa Fe proc

We presented the results of several statistical tests of the randomness in the angular sky-distribution of gamma-ray bursts in BATSE Catalog. Thirteen different tests were presented based on Voronoi tesselation, Minimal spanning tree and Multifractal spectrum for five classes (short1, short2, intermediate, long1, long2) of gamma-ray bursts, separately. The long1 and long2 classes are distributed randomly. The intermediate subclass, in accordance with the earlier results of the authors, is distributed non-randomly. Concerning the short subclass earlier statistical tests also suggested some departure from the random distribution, but not on a high enough confidence level. The new tests presented in this article suggest also non-randomness here., Comment: in GAMMA-RAY BURSTS 2007: Proceedings of the Santa Fe Conference

A sample of 197 long BATSE GRBs is studied statistically. In the sample 11 variables, describing for any burst the time behavior of the spectra and other quantities, are collected. The application of the factor analysis on this sample shows that five factors describe the sample satisfactorily. Both the pseudo-redshifts coming from the variability and the Amati-relation in its original form are disfavored., Comment: In GAMMA-RAY BURSTS 2007: Proceedings of the Santa Fe Conference

In this paper we make an attempt to combine the two kinds of data from the Swift-XRT instrument (windowed timing and photon counting modes) and the from BAT. A thorough desription of the applied procedure will be given. We apply various binning techniques to the different data: Bayes blocks, exponential binning and signal-to-noise type of binning. We present a handful of lightcurves and some possible applications., Comment: 2008 NANJING GAMMA-RAY BURST CONFERENCE. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1065, pp. 35-38 (2008)

The measured redshifts of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which were first detected by the Swift satellite, seem to be bigger on average than the redshifts of GRBs detected by other satellites. We analyzed the redshift distribution of GRBs triggered and observed by different satellites (Swift[1], HETE2[2], BeppoSax, Ulyssses). After considering the possible biases significant difference was found at the p = 95.70% level in the redshift distributions of GRBs measured by HETE and the Swift., Comment: 2008 NANJING GAMMA-RAY BURST CONFERENCE. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1065, pp. 119-122 (2008)

We study statistically 197 long gamma-ray bursts, detected and measured in detail by the BATSE instrument of the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. In the sample 10 variables, describing for any burst the time behavior of the spectra and other quantities, are collected. The factor analysis method is used to find the latent random variables describing the temporal and spectral properties of GRBs. The application of this particular method to this sample indicates that five factors and the $\REpk$ spectral variable (the ratio of peak energies in the spectrum) describe the sample satisfactorily. Both the pseudo-redshifts inferred from the variability, and the Amati-relation in its original form, are disfavored., Comment: 5 pages, acceptod to A&A

Two classes of gamma-ray bursts have been identified in the BATSE catalogs characterized by durations shorter and longer than about 2 seconds. There are, however, some indications for the existence of a third class. Swift satellite detectors have different spectral sensitivity than pre-Swift ones for gamma-ray bursts. Therefore, it is worth to reanalyze the durations and their distribution. We analyze, the maximum likelihood estimation, the bursts duration distribution, published in The First BAT Catalog, whether it contains two, three or more groups. The three log-normal fit is significantly (99.54% probability) better than the two for the duration distribution. Monte-Carlo simulations also confirm this probability (99.2%). Similarly, in previous results we found that the fourth component is not needed. The relative frequencies of the distribution of the groups are 7% short 35% intermediate and 58% long. Although the relative frequencies of the groups are different than in the BATSE GRB sample, the difference in the instrument spectral sensitivities can explain this bias on a natural way. This means theoretical models may be needed to explain three different type of gamma-ray bursts., Comment: Accepted in AA, added bibliography

We studied the complete randomness of the angular distribution of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by BATSE. Since GRBs seem to be a mixture of objects of different physical nature we divided the BATSE sample into 5 subsamples (short1, short2, intermediate, long1, long2) based on their durations and peak fluxes and studied the angular distributions separately. We used three methods, Voronoi tesselation, minimal spanning tree and multifractal spectra to search for non-randomness in the subsamples. To investigate the eventual non-randomness in the subsamples we defined 13 test-variables (9 from the Voronoi tesselation, 3 from the minimal spanning tree and one from the multifractal spectrum). Assuming that the point patterns obtained from the BATSE subsamples are fully random we made Monte Carlo simulations taking into account the BATSE's sky-exposure function. The MC simulations enabled us to test the null hypothesis i.e. that the angular distributions are fully random. We tested the randomness by binomial test and introducing squared Euclidean distances in the parameter space of the test-variables. We concluded that the short1, short2 groups deviate significantly (99.90%, 99.98%) from the fully randomness in the distribution of the squared Euclidean distances but it is not the case at the long samples. At the intermediate group the squared Euclidean distances also give significant deviation (98.51%)., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Principal component analysis is a statistical method, which lowers the number of important variables in a data set. The use of this method for the bursts' spectra and afterglows is discussed in this paper. The analysis indicates that three principal components are enough among the eight ones to describe the variablity of the data. The correlation between spectral index alpha and the redshift suggests that the thermal emission component becomes more dominant at larger redshifts., Comment: published in Nuovo Cimento

The low energy spectra of some gamma-ray bursts' show excess components beside the power-law dependence. The consequences of such a feature allows to estimate the gamma photometric redshift of the long gamma-ray bursts in the BATSE Catalog. There is good correlation between the measured optical and the estimated gamma photometric redshifts. The estimated redshift values for the long bright gamma-ray bursts are up to z=4, while for the the faint long bursts - which should be up to z=20 - the redshifts cannot be determined unambiguously with this method. The redshift distribution of all the gamma-ray bursts with known optical redshift agrees quite well with the BATSE based gamma photometric redshift distribution., Comment: published in Baltic Astronomy

We provided separate bivariate log-normal distribution fits to the BATSE short and long burst samples using the durations and fluences. We show that these fits present an evidence for a power-law dependence between the fluence and the duration, with a statistically significant different index for the long and short groups. We argue that the effect is probably real, and the two subgroups are different physical phenomena. This may provide a potentially useful constraint for models of long and short bursts., Comment: 2 figures

The origin of dark bursts - i.e. that have no observed afterglows in X-ray, optical/NIR and radio ranges - is unclear yet. Different possibilities - instrumental biases, very high redshifts, extinction in the host galaxies - are discussed and shown to be important. On the other hand, the dark bursts should not form a new subgroup of long gamma-ray bursts themselves., Comment: published in Nuovo Cimento

Gamma-ray bursts can be divided into three groups ("short", "intermediate", "long") with respect to their durations. The third type of gamma-ray bursts - as known - has the intermediate duration. We show that the intermediate group is the softest one. An anticorrelation between the hardness and the duration is found for this subclass in contrast to the short and long groups., Comment: In Sixteenth Maryland Astrophysics Conference

We studied the statistical properties of the luminosity distance and internal extinction data of type Ia supernovae in the lists published by Tonry et al. (2003) and Barris et al. (2004). After selecting the luminosity distance in an empty Universe as a reference level we divided the sample into low $z<0.25$ and high $z \ge 0.25$ parts. We further divided these subsamples by the median of the internal extinction. Performing sign tests using the standardized residuals between the estimated logarithmic luminosity distances and those of an empty universe, on the four subsamples separately, we recognized that the residuals were distributed symmetrically in the low redshift region, independently from the internal extinction. On the contrary, the low extinction part of the data of $z \ge 0.25$ clearly showed an excess of the points with respect to an empty Universe which was not the case in the high extinction region. This diversity pointed to an interrelation between the estimated luminosity distance and internal extinction. To characterize quantitatively this interrelation we introduced a hidden variable making use of the technics of factor analysis. After subtracting that part of the residual which was explained by the hiddenmaking use of the technics of factor analysis. After subtracting that part of the residual which was explained by the hidden variable we obtained luminosity distances which were already free from interrelation with internal extinction. Fitting the corrected luminosity distances with cosmological models we concluded that the SN Ia data alone did not exclude the possibility of the $\Lambda=0$ solution., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomische Nachrichten

The redshift distribution of gamma-ray bursts collected in the BATSE Catalog is compared with the star formation rate. We aim to clarify the accordance between them. We also study the case of comoving number density of bursts monotonously increasing up to redshift 6-20. A method independent of the models of the gamma-ray bursts is used. The short and the long subgroups are studied separately. The redshift distribution of the long bursts may be proportional to the star formation rate. For the short bursts this can also happen, but the proportionality is less evident. For the long bursts the monotonously increasing scenario is also less probable but still can occur. For the short bursts this alternative seems to be excluded., Comment: 6 pages, no figures, accepted for publication in A&A

Until 6 October 2005 sixteen redshifts have been measured of long gamma-ray bursts discovered by the Swift satellite. Further 45 redshifts have been measured of the long gamma-ray bursts discovered by other satellites. Here we perform five statistical tests comparing the redshift distributions of these two samples assuming - as the null hypothesis - identical distribution for the two samples. Three tests (Student's $t$-test, Mann-Whitney test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test) reject the null hypothesis on the significance levels between 97.19 and 98.55%. Two different comparisons of the medians show extreme $(99.78-99.99994)$% significance levels of rejection. This means that the redshifts of the Swift sample and the redshifts of the non-Swift sample are distributed differently - in the Swift sample the redshifts are on average larger. This statistical result suggests that the long GRBs should on average be at the higher redshifts of the Swift sample., Comment: 4 pages, accepted as an A&A Research Note

We estimated the Txx quantiles of the cumulative GRB light curves using our recalculated background. The basic information of the light curves was extracted by multivariate statistical methods. The possible classes of the light curves are also briefly discussed., Comment: 4 pages, 8 figures

The CGRO/BATSE database includes many types of data such as the 16-channel continuous background or medium energy resolution burst data (CONT and MER data types). We have calculated some four hundred burst's medium energy resolution spectra and Principal Component Analysis has been applied. We found five components can describe GRBs' spectra., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted in Nuovo Cimento

Gamma-ray bursts can be divided into three groups ("short", "intermediate", "long") with respect to their durations. This classification is somewhat imprecise, since the subgroup of intermediate duration has an admixture of both short and long bursts. In this paper a physically more reasonable definition of the intermediate group is presented, using also the hardnesses of the bursts. It is shown again that the existence of the three groups is real, no further groups are needed. The intermediate group is the softest one. From this new definition it follows that 11% of all bursts belong to this group. An anticorrelation between the hardness and the duration is found for this subclass in contrast to the short and long groups. Despite this difference it is not clear yet whether this group represents a physically different phenomenon., Comment: accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

The gamma-ray burst's lightcurves have been analyzed using a special wavelet transformation. The applied wavelet base is based on a typical Fast Rise-Exponential Decay (FRED) pulse. The shape of the wavelet coefficients' total distribution is determined on the observational frequency grid. Our analysis indicates that the pulses in the long bursts' high energy channel lightcurves are more FRED-like than the lower ones, independently from the actual physical time-scale., Comment: GRB: 30 years of Discovery. ed by E.E. Fenimore and M. Galassi

It is shown that in the duration-hardness plane the GRBs of the third intermediate subgroup are well defined. Their durations are intermediate (i.e. roughly between 2 and 10 seconds), but their hardnesses are the lowest. They are even softer than the long bursts., Comment: Published in Baltic Astronomy

The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) observed many types of data and one of them is the time-tagged photon events (TTE data). We use the Bayesian block analysis, using Bayesian statistics, analyses the TTE data. Our results; calculations of duration (T100), count rates (burst photon numbers in different channels) and count peaks (in 64, 16 and 4 ms). We present the duration, the peak duration and the distance between peaks distributions. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has been also applied. The PCA shows interesting results, such as channel 4 (highest energy channel) probably is very important., Comment: accepted in Nuovo Cimento

We studied the ISM distribution in and around the star forming cloud L1251 with optical star counts. A careful calculation with a maximum likelihood based statistical approach resulted in B,V,R,I extinction distributions from the star count maps. A distance of 330+/-30 pc was derived. The extinction maps revealed an elongated dense cloud with a bow shock at its eastern side. We estimated a Mach number of M~2 for the bow shock. A variation of the apparent dust properties is detected, i.e. the Rv=Av/E{B-V} total to selective extinction ratio varies from 3 to 5.5, peaking at the densest part of L1251. The spatial structure of the head of L1251 is well modelled with a Schuster-sphere (i.e. n=5 polytropic sphere). The observed radial distribution of mass fits the model with high accuracy out to 2.5pc distance from the assumed center. Unexpectedly, the distribution of NH3 1.3 cm line widths is also well matched by the Schuster solution even in the tail of the cloud. Since the elongated head-tail structure of L1251 is far from the spherical symmetry the good fit of the linewidths in the tail makes it reasonable to assume that the present cloud structure has been formed by isothermal contraction., Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics