The 4.5 +/- 0.5 Soft Gamma Repeaters in Review

Four Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) have now been identified with certainty, and a fifth has possibly been detected. I will review their X-ray and gamma-ray properties in both outburst and quiescence. The magnetar model accounts fairly well for the observations of SGR1806-20 and SGR1900+14, but data are still lacking for SGR1627-41 and SGR0525-66. The locations of the SGRs with respect to their supernova remnants suggest that they are high velocity objects.Comment: This review article will appear in various forms in the following proceedings: 1. X-Ray Astronomy 1999 - Stellar Endpoints, AGN and the X-Ray Background (Astrophysical Letters and Communications, 2000) 2. Proceedings of the 5th Compton Symposium (AIP Press, 2000) 3. Proceedings of the 5th Huntsville GRB Symposium (AIP Press, April 2000

A Gamma-Ray Burst Bibliography, 1973-2001

On the average, 1.5 new publications on cosmic gamma-ray bursts enter the literature every day. The total number now exceeds 5300. I describe here a relatively complete bibliography which is on the web, and which can be made available electronically in various formats.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the conference on Gamma-Ray Burst and Afterglow Astronomy 2001: A Workshop Celebrating the First Year of the HETE Mission, to be published by AI

Present and future gamma-ray burst experiments

Gamma-ray burst counterpart studies require small, prompt error boxes. Today, there are several missions which can provide them: BeppoSAX, the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer, and the 3rd Interplanetary Network. In the near future, HETE-II, a possible extended Interplanetary Network, and INTEGRAL will operate in this capacity. In the longer term future, a dedicated gamma-ray burst MIDEX mission may fly. The capabilities of these missions are reviewed, comparing the number of bursts, the rapidity of the localizations, and the error box sizes.Comment: Invited paper presented at the conference on Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Afterglow Era, Rome, November 1998. To appear in Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Serie

A Gamma-Ray Burst Bibliography, 1973-1999

On the average, one new publication on cosmic gamma-ray bursts enters the literature every day. The total number now exceeds 4100. I present here a complete bibliography which can be made available electronically to interested parties.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the 5th Huntsville GRB Symposium, AIP press, April 200

The Ulysses Supplement to the BATSE 3B Catalog of Cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts

We present Interplanetary Network localization information for 218 gamma-ray bursts in the 3rd BATSE catalog, obtained by analyzing the arrival times of these bursts at the Ulysses and Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) spacecraft. For any given burst observed by these two spacecraft, arrival time analysis (or "triangulation") results in an annulus of possible arrival directions whose half-width varies between 7 arcseconds and 32 arcminutes, depending on the intensity and time history of the burst, and the distance of the Ulysses spacecraft from Earth. This annulus generally intersects the BATSE error circle, resulting in an average reduction of the error box area of a factor of 30.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplemen

Fireball/Blastwave Model and Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters

Soft gamma-ray repeaters are at determined distances and their positions are known accurately. If observed, afterglows from their soft gamma-ray bursts will provide important clues to the study of the so called "classical gamma-ray bursts". On applying the popular fireball/blastwave model of classical gamma-ray bursts to soft gamma-ray repeaters, it is found that their X-ray and optical afterglows are detectable. Monitoring of the three repeaters is solicited.Comment: Already published in 1998 in "Chinese Physics Letters", replaced with the published version. See astro-ph/0502452 for a more detailed versio

Gravitationally Lensed Gamma-Ray Bursts as Probes of Dark Compact Objects

If dark matter in the form of compact objects comprises a large fraction of the mass of the universe, then gravitational lensing effects on gamma-ray bursts are expected. We utilize BATSE and Ulysses data to search for lenses of different mass ranges, which cause lensing in the milli, pico, and femto regimes. Null results are used to set weak limits on the cosmological abundance of compact objects in mass ranges from 10$^{-16}$ to 10$^{-9}$ $M_{\odot}$. A stronger limit is found for a much discussed $\Omega = 0.15$ universe dominated by black holes of masses $\sim 10^{6.5} M_{\odot}$, which is ruled out at the $\sim$ 90% confidence level.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, fixed minor corrections. Accepted for publication in ApJ(L

No Evidence for Gamma-Ray Burst/Abell Cluster or Gamma- Ray Burst/Radio-Quiet Quasar Correlations

We examine the recent claims that cosmic gamma-ray bursts are associated with either radio-quiet quasars or Abell clusters. These associations were based on positional coincidences between cataloged quasars or Abell clusters, and selected events from the BATSE 3B catalog of gamma-ray bursts. We use a larger sample of gamma-ray bursts with more accurate positions, obtained by the 3rd Interplanetary Network, to re-evaluate these possible associations. We find no evidence for either.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa