New evidence for the cosmological origin of gamma-ray bursts

We find that gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) at the 3B catalog are correlated (at 95% confidence level) with Abell clusters. This is the first known correlation of GRBs with any other astronomical population. It confirms the cosmological origin of GRBs. For a subsample of GRBs with accurate positions (delta <2 degrees 3), we compare the rich cluster autocorrelation and the cross-correlation of this subsample with the rich clusters. The amplitude ratio of the comparison suggests that similar to 26%+/-15% of the members of this subsample are located within 600 h(-1) Mpc (z=0.2). For an Omega=1 cosmology with no source evolution, this result implies maximum redshift for the accurate position subsample of z(max-a)=0.36(-0.07)(+0.27), and z(max)=0.7(-0.07)(+0.93) for the entire GRBs population.