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 confir ms the cosmological origin of GRBs. For a subsample of GRBs with accur ate positions (delta <2 degrees 3), we compare the rich cluster autoco rrelation and the cross-correlation of this subsample with the rich cl usters. 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, thi s 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 e ntire GRBs population.