ARE GAMMA-RAY BURSTS INDEED CORRELATED WITH ABELL CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES

We study the possible correlation of a selected sample of 87 gamma-ray bursts that can be localized to less than or equal to 6 deg(2) with 3 616 Abell clusters of galaxies (with \b\ > 30 degrees) for which we ha ve determined angular sizes. The intention is to confirm whether the b ursts are related to Abell clusters of galaxies, as has been claimed b y researchers who found a 95% confidence level correlation between Abe ll clusters and a subsample of 136 events from the BATSE 3B catalog. W e find no correlation between the positions of gamma-ray bursts and th ose of Abell clusters. In fact, the number of observed events toward A bell clusters is even smaller than that expected to occur at random.