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# An Off-line Scan of the BATSE Daily Records and a Large Uniform Sample of Gamma-Ray Bursts

## 1 Introduction

The sample of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) (Fishman et al. 1989) onboard the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) is a few times larger than the yield of all other experiments that have detected GRBs. Despite that the breakthrough in 1997 concerning the distance to GRBs was associated with the precise localization of a small number of GRBs by Beppo-SAX, the value of the large BATSE sample cannot be overestimated. Problems where a large statistics of GRBs as well as the wide brightness range of the BATSE sample are crucial are:
1. estimating the total rate of GRBs in the Universe,
2. searching for different subclasses of GRBs,
3. observing gravitational lensing of GRBs,
4. searching for repetition of GRBs,
5. estimating the intrinsic luminosity function of GRBs.
The list can be made longer. Here, we mention only those problems which are directly associated with the goals of this work.

Nevertheless, the BATSE sample (i.e., the sample of the triggered events included in the BATSE catalogs555The BATSE catalog is available at http://www.batse.msfc.nasa.gov/batse/) is smaller than what it could be at the actual sensitivity of BATSE. The reason for this is a difficult variable background. The trigger threshold must be higher and the trigger integration time must be shorter than for the case of a constant background. Otherwise a high rate of triggers would have caused severe problems in the data acquisition. The BATSE trigger adjusted to the background conditions missed many weak but still highly significant GRBs. Some bursts were also missed due to other reasons (data readouts, large background, etc.).

Many of these non-triggered GRBs can be confidently identified in the BATSE daily records which cover the whole period of the CGRO operation. Off-line searches for non-triggered bursts with less rigid off-line trigger criteria can substantially increase the sensitivity of BATSE and extend the sample of GRBs both in number and in brightness range.

The first sample of non-triggered GRBs was published by Rubin et al. (1992). A systematic search for non-triggered GRBs in 6 years of CGRO/BATSE data was performed by Kommers et al. (1997, 1998,666The catalog is available at http://space.mit.edu/BATSE/ 2000, hereafter K97, K98, K00). Schmidt (1999) performed a scan of the BATSE daily records for $``$6 years (TJD 8365–10528) using a triggering procedure close to the BATSE trigger and found about 400 bursts missed by BATSE itself.

The main feature of our off-line scan of the BATSE data is the measurement of the efficiency of the GRB detection as a function of brightness using artificial test bursts (e.g., Stern et al. 2000b). This method plays the role of being a calibration of the experiment.

In this paper, we concentrate on a description of the data reduction and the tests for possible non-GRB contaminations. We also describe the publically available data base containing our sample of GRBs. Earlier preliminary versions of this data base and some first results were briefly reported in Stern et al. (1999a, 1999b, 2000a, 2000b).

In §§2–5, we describe the procedures of the scan, the identification of GRBs, and the GRB data reduction. In §6, we describe the general characteristics of our GRB sample, compare the sample with the BATSE and the Kommers et al. catalogs, and describe the data archive containing the sample. Section 7 is devoted to various statistical tests for possible non-GRB contaminations using hardness ratios, angular and latitude distributions. We obtain upper limits to the contaminations caused by terrestrial phenomena, solar flares, and Galactic X-ray objects. In §8, we estimate the efficiency of the scan and present the final $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ distribution, which considerably differs from those of the BATSE and the Kommers et al. catalogs.

## 2 The Data Scan

We used the BATSE daily records (DISCLA) from the ftp archive at the Goddard Space Flight Center.777Available at: http://cossc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/batse/daily/ The main array of the raw data consists of the number counts in the 8 BATSE Large Area Detectors (LADs) in the 4 energy channels with 1.024 s time resolution for the whole period of observations (excluding some data gaps).

Examples of data fragments are presented in Figure 2. The data are difficult to process because of the large diversity of interfering phenomena: the variable background, the flaring ionosphere, solar flares, variable astrophysical sources, and occultations of sources by the Earth causing steps in the count rate curves. In addition, the situation is confused by numerous data gaps.

The complicated background makes usual statistical estimates of the detection efficiency useless. The estimate derived considering only Poisson fluctuations does not work when non-Poisson variability of the background is strong. Then there are a variety of reasons for missing a detectable burst: a data gap, interference with a variable source, or high ionospheric activity. The corresponding probabilities are in all cases brightness dependent. In this case, a realistic estimate of the detection efficiency should be based on some kind of simulation of the real detection conditions using real data. Such a simulation was implemented in the form of a test burst method (Stern et al. 2000b).

Artificial test bursts were prepared from a sample of 500 real triggered BATSE bursts of durations longer than 1 s and were added to the original “daily” count rate records. Each test burst was created by sampling one of the 500 bursts with a random number and rescaling its amplitude to a randomly sampled expected peak count rate with a proper Poisson noise. The locations of the test bursts were sampled isotropically over the sky above the Earth horizon, and their arrival times were distributed randomly with an average interval $`25000`$ s (in total, there were $`\mathrm{11\; 100}`$ test bursts). The distribution of peak count rates prescribed to the test bursts is shown in Figure 2. The shape of the distribution is complicated because initially we did not have a clear optimal scheme of brightness sampling of test bursts. Initially, we sampled the expected peak count rate between $`0.08\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`0.3\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$ (uniformly in logarithmic scale) for 60% of the test bursts. This interval was believed to cover the main variation of the efficiency curve and no detections below $`0.08\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$ were expected. The remaining 40% of the test bursts were sampled in the brightness interval $`0.33.0\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$ (according to a power-law $`dN/dPP^{1.6}`$) in order to check whether there exists any efficiency versus brightness dependence for bright GRBs. Later we improved the efficiency of the search and found that we detect some real events below the above threshold. Therefore, we reduced the lower limit to $`0.06\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and later to $`0.05\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$. As a result, we have an artificial and non-optimal distribution of test bursts. However, it is still suitable for estimating the efficiency.

The procedure of the scan is described in Stern et al. (1999b, 2000b). Briefly, it consists of adding test bursts to the data, the triggering, an express-analysis, the identification, and the classification.

The off-line trigger consists of three criteria to be satisfied simultaneously. The first is a traditional one: a significant rise in the counts over the estimated background. For the brightest detector, a $`4\sigma `$ excess was required, and for the second brightest, a $`2.5\sigma `$ excess. This is lower than the BATSE threshold and similar to that of K00. The excess was checked for in time intervals (i.e., triggering time scales) of 1 bin (1.024 s), 2 bins, 4 bins, and 8 bins. The longer triggering integration time scales gives the main gain in the sensitivity as compared to BATSE. The second criterion is a sufficiently high variability around the trigger time. The variability is expressed as the residual $`\chi ^2`$ after making a linear fit of the signal. This $`\chi ^2`$ should exceed a threshold value, 2.5 per degree of freedom. This value was adjusted empirically in a trial scan. The third criterion is a check whether the signal can be attributed to Cyg X-1. The signal was fitted with the photon flux from the Cyg X-1 direction and the residual was checked for a sufficient variability as in the previous case. The two latter criteria, which were not used previously, turned out to be very efficient in eliminating false triggers reducing their number by more than an order of magnitude.

Each trigger was followed by a preliminary estimate of whether the trigger is a GRB candidate (the person performing the scan was unaware of whether the candidate event was a real or a test burst). Most triggers were rejected by a visual analysis. Usually false triggers were caused by occultation steps, sharp variations of the ionospheric background, or solar flares. The selection criteria used at this step are similar to those described in §4, they are just not as stringent, and the count rate was just assumed to be proportional to the detector projection area in the burst direction ($`\mathrm{cos}\theta `$). For all selected events, we recorded fragments of the original data and some preliminary estimates of their parameters.

At the next step, we identified which recorded events were test bursts or BATSE triggers. Finally, we processed all recorded events and made a more careful selection of GRBs using the procedures described in §3 and §4.

The rate of our off-line detections of GRBs depends on time (see Fig. 3). It reflects the quality of the data, the intensity of noise-generating sources (Cyg X-1, X-ray novae), and the solar activity. One can see a gradual increase in the number of detected GRBs with time. It results from improvements in the software and from the experience gained during the scan. Note that our rate of observing non-triggered GRBs is well correlated with that of K98. The scan itself took for our group 2 years. The speed of the scan gradually increased. Now the primary scan would take about 200 full working days for one person and a comparable amount of work would be spent on the second stage data processing.

## 3 The Fitting of the GRB Location and Photon Flux

The aim of the fit is to find the best burst location, spectrum, and intensity describing the count rate data in 8 detectors and 4 energy channels. This is done using the detector response matrix (hereafter DRM), $`D_{ljk}`$, where $`l`$ is the index of the photon energy bin, $`k`$ is the channel number, and $`j`$ is the detector number. $`D_{ljk}`$ depends on the burst location, the satellite orientation, and the location of the Earth with respect to the CGRO coordinate system. To calculate the DRM we used a version of the code written by G. Pendleton which was used for the localization of the BATSE triggered bursts (Pendleton et al. 1999, hereafter P99). The localization procedure itself differs from that implemented in the LOCBURST code by P99 in some details as described below.

As a spectral hypothesis, we used the Band parametrization (Band et al. 1993), which consists of 4 parameters: the low energy power law slope, $`\alpha `$; the high energy power law slope, $`\beta `$; the transition (peak) energy, $`E_0`$; and the normalization factor. The problem is that we have only 4 experimental values: the counts in the 4 energy channels. Therefore a straightforward fit using the Band function would be degenerate.

We solved this problem using a sample of Band parametrizations (Band et al. 1993) of real time-integrated spectra of 54 GRBs. At the first step, we determined which of the 54 spectra (i.e., which combination of $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$ and $`E_0`$) that provides the best fit of the time-integrated brightest part of the burst using a pre-estimated burst location. The location fit used by P99 assumed that the GRB spectra are power laws (i.e., a 2-parameter description), but this is a worse description of real GRB spectra as compared to the Band function.

For a given spectrum $`F_l`$ we have

$$C_{ijk}=\underset{l}{}D_{ljk}F_lI_i/F_{50300}=d_{jk}I_i,$$
(1)
where $`C_{ijk}`$ is the net GRB signal in counts in the $`i`$-th time bin, the $`j`$-th detector, and the $`k`$-th energy channel, $`F_{50300}`$ is the integral of the incident photon number spectrum in the 50–300 keV energy range, and $`d_{jk}`$ is the spectrum-integrated detector response matrix. In this normalization, $`I_i`$ is the photon flux in units of $`\mathrm{ph}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$. The value to be minimized is

$$\chi ^2=\underset{ijk}{}\frac{(d_{jk}I_i+B_{ijk}S_{ijk})^2}{S_{ijk}},$$
(2)
where $`B_{ijk}`$ is the estimated background for time bin $`i`$ and $`S_{ijk}`$ is the measured count rate. The following parameters are free to vary. For the whole event there are three parameters: two parameters to describe the burst location (the factor $`d_{jk}`$ depends on location) and one parameter for the choice of the spectrum from the Band sample. For each time bin there are two more parameters: the photon flux $`I_i`$ and the spectral peak energy $`E_0`$ (at this stage, we kept $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ fixed at their best-fit values). Having two parameters ($`I_i`$ and $`E_0`$) free at every time bin is statistically meaningful and our chosen model describing the GRB spectral evolution as a variation of $`E_0`$ seems natural.

The background is estimated as a linear function of time, independently for each detector and each energy channel using two fitting windows, one before and one after the main peak of the event. These windows were set manually using a visual interpretation of the count rate time profile. In some rare difficult cases, only one background fitting window was used.

The value of $`\chi ^2`$ was calculated for a few thousand locations over a wide area of the sky. Using the $`\chi ^2`$ map of the sky, we defined the best fit location, the $`1\sigma `$ error boundary, and the quality of the event as a GRB candidate (see §4). The most serious problem in the location fit is the poor accuracy of the DRM for the detectors which do not see the burst directly but still detect the burst due to photon scattering by the Earth’s atmosphere or due to penetration through the satellite. A precise calculation of the DRM is an extremely difficult problem as one should take into account the 3D mass distribution of the CGRO. In the LOCBURST algorithm, the final localization fit is performed only for the 4 or 6 brightest detectors. This reduces the systematic error for the best fit location.

However, this option causes a problem when we make the localization for a weak burst where a wide $`\chi ^2`$ map of the sky is needed (see §4). For different locations, different detectors become the brightest and it is not easy to find the 4 or 6 brightest detectors from the data. As far as our main interest concerns weak events which requires a large area $`\chi ^2`$ map, we preferred to use the fit for all 8 detectors. Another advantage of the 8 detector fit is a slightly better signal to noise ratio for the fitting net signal given by equation (1).

The systematic errors of our procedure is probably slightly worse than that of LOCBURST. However, the difference is considerable only for very bright bursts. A more exact localization could be achieved, in principle, by iterations using a refined DRM and reducing the number of detectors participating in the fit. Since the exact localization of strong bursts is beyond the scope of this work at its present stage, this was not done. For deviations between our and the BATSE locations, see §6.

The best fit value of the photon flux, $`I_i`$, for a given burst location and photon spectrum can be obtain by minimizing the expression for $`\chi _i^2`$ similar to equation (2) with respect to $`I_i`$, i.e. by solving $`\chi _i^2/I_i=0`$:

$$I_i=\frac{_{jk}(S_{ijk}B_{ijk})d_{jk}/S_{ijk}}{_{jk}d_{jk}^2/S_{ijk}}.$$
(3)
The fitting count rate (that we prefer to use instead of the photon flux, $`I_i`$, for estimating the peak brightness) is then defined by equation (1), or, in units of $`\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$ as

$$c_{ik}=(d_{mk}/s_m)I_i,$$
(4)
where $`m`$ is the index of the detector having the largest projected area $`s_m`$ in the burst direction.

The quantities used in this paper to represent the time profiles and the brightness of GRBs are:
1. The count rate in the 50–300 keV energy band and the $`i`$-th time bin, $`c_i=c_{i2}+c_{i3}\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$, with $`c_{i2}`$ and $`c_{i3}`$ given by equation (4).
2. The peak count rate, $`c\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$, which is a function of $`c_i`$, see §5.2. This quantity is also denoted as $`P`$ (mostly on figures) following the tradition.
3. The net (fitting) count rate, $`C_{ik}=_jC_{ijk}\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{s}^1`$, where $`j`$ is the detector number, see equation (1), or the net count rate in the 50–300 keV energy band: $`C_i=C_{i2}+C_{i3}`$.
4. The peak photon flux, $`I\mathrm{ph}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$, which is a function of $`I_i`$, see §5.2.

## 4 The Identification of GRBs

The main quantitative criterion for selecting real events associated with astrophysical sources from the variations of the terrestrial background or other fluctuations was based on the residual $`\chi ^2`$ map of the sky. The same criterion was used as the significance threshold. Calculating the residual $`\chi ^2`$ as a function of the burst location (eq. 2) we define the “1$`\sigma `$ area”, i.e., a region where $`\chi ^2\chi _0^2<\sqrt{2N}`$ where $`N`$ is the number of the degrees of freedom, and $`\chi _0^2`$ is the minimum value of $`\chi ^2`$. The location error according to our preference is the maximum distance, $`\delta _1`$, from the best fit location to the boundary of the 1$`\sigma `$ area. Similarly, we define the 4$`\sigma `$ region and the maximum distance, $`\delta _4`$, from the best fit location. Our criterion which any event without any exception should pass to be considered as a GRB candidate is $`\delta _4<90^\mathrm{o}`$. Note, that $`4\sigma `$ is the excess of the residual $`\chi ^2`$ for the fit at a $`90^\mathrm{o}`$ displacement. The statistical significance of an event (defined by the $`\chi ^2`$ with respect to the background) is always above $`7\sigma `$ when the $`\delta _4`$ criterion is satisfied. The $`\delta _4`$ criterion efficiently rejects the fluctuations of the diffuse ionospheric background. Examples of events which have $`\delta _4`$ close to its threshold value are shown in Figures 4 and 5.1.

Further criteria were more qualitative and subjective. First, we checked whether one of the variable sources (the Sun, Cyg X-1, or one of the known X-ray transients currently active) was inside or close to the $`1\sigma `$ area. Then we applied additional requirements. First, a large hardness ratio (number of counts in the 50–100 keV energy range exceeding that in the 30–50 keV range), especially for the events close to the position of the Sun. Second, for events close to the positions of the hard X-ray sources such as Cyg X-1 or X-ray transients, a large domination (estimated visually) of the event over the typical current fluctuations of the source was required (a large domination over both Poisson and non-Poisson noise was a general requirement). Short soft events were identified as outbursts of X-ray pulsars and their locations were always consistent with the location of one of the known X-ray pulsars.

For each event we checked visually the signal in different detectors with the requirement that the signal is visible in more than one detector. However, no requirements for the significance of the signal in the second brightest detector were applied – the signal should just be visually recognized.

Special attention was paid to the “context” of the event: a GRB should be well isolated in order to be accepted. If a persistent noise from approximately the same direction and of comparable intensity or a high ionospheric activity were seen, the event was discarded. The isolation criterion is a subjective one to some extent as it is very difficult to formalize.

There were no “good” events with a localization significantly below the Earth’s horizon (all tests bursts were sampled above the horizon). Such events were only marginally significant or did not satisfy the $`\delta _4`$-criterion. Therefore there was no reason to use the location relative to the Earth’s horizon as an independent criterion. Nevertheless events located near the horizon were treated more suspiciously if the ionospheric activity was high.

## 5 Estimating the Peak Brightness of GRBs

### 5.1 The Choice of the Measure for the GRB Brightness

There are two natural choices for the measure of the strength of GRBs. One is a time integral of the GRB signal: the photon fluence, the energy fluence, or the total counts. Another option is to use the peak characteristics: the peak photon flux, the peak energy flux, or the peak count rate. If we try to estimate the GRB distance distribution, a measure which is closer to a standard candle (i.e., that has a smaller intrinsic dispersion) would be preferable. We do not know if this is the case – probably both the fluence and the peak flux have very large dispersions.

The choice is, however, natural as the peak characteristics are much easier to measure. Besides, the detection efficiency depends on the peak count rate rather than on the time-integrated signal. Among the peak characteristics we choose the peak count rate as a measure of the GRB brightness for the following reasons. First, the peak count rate unlike the peak photon or energy flux does not depend on the assumed photon spectra which could be rather uncertain. It is defined by direct measurements. Second, the detection efficiency is a direct function of the peak count rate, but not of the peak photon flux. The definition of the peak count rate when we have 8 detectors with different orientations. The best choice at this step is the fitting count rate, $`C_{ik}`$ or its reduced value $`c_{ik}`$ (see §3), i.e., the best fit hypothesis of the true signal.

### 5.2 The Estimate of the Peak Count Rate

The weakest GRBs we deal with have a peak count rate of the same order of magnitude as the Poisson fluctuations at 1.024 s time resolution. Therefore, if we define the peak count rate as the content of the brightest time bin, we probably just choose the highest Poisson fluctuation and thus overestimate the brightness, perhaps by a factor 2 or more for the weakest events. If we smooth the signal, e.g. by averaging over several time bins, we reduce the Poisson noise but then we may lose true short peaks of the GRB signal. A compromise between smoothing and preserving the time resolution is the two-iteration scheme described in Stern, Poutanen & Svensson (1999).

In the first iteration, we find the shortest time scale, $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_j=2^j\times 1.024`$ s, $`j=0,1,2,3`$, on which the signal has a significant variation between neighboring time bins (using a $`4.3\sigma `$ threshold). Then we search for the $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_j`$-interval where the count rate is the largest. (If $`\mathrm{\Delta }T=1.024`$ s, the search is completed.) If $`j>0`$, we make a second iteration searching for a significant excess in a fraction $`\delta T_l`$ of the brightest $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_j`$-interval ($`l<j`$). The significance threshold, $`h_l`$, depends on the time scale $`2^l\times 1024`$ s at this step. The values of $`h_l`$ were optimized empirically comparing prescribed (expected) and measured count rates for test bursts and were set to $`h_0=3.5\sigma `$, $`h_1=2.4\sigma `$, $`h_3=1.4\sigma `$.

The result of this method is shown in Figure 5.2. One can see that a reasonable linearity between the expected and the measured count rates has been achieved. Nevertheless, after getting rid of the Poisson bias we still have a smaller bias of a similar origin. Events enhanced by positive Poisson fluctuations have a higher probability to be detected. Therefore we observe some systematic excess of the measured amplitude over the expected one for the weakest bursts where the detection efficiency is low. This bias is accounted for by the efficiency matrix (see §8.2).

It is useful to give the approximate ratio between the peak count rate and the peak photon flux. This ratio versus the peak count rate is shown in Figure 6. There is no evident correlation between the ratio and the brightness. The relation between the peak count rate and the peak photon flux can be expressed as $`c=0.7504I\pm 0.063`$, where the rms variance is given as the error. Note that in rare cases the 50–300 keV count rate exceeds the 50–300 keV photon flux. The main reason for this is the atmospheric scattering of photons. The photon flux by definition is the flux of direct photons, while the photons scattered in the Earth atmosphere contribute to the count rate. For some geometries, the scattered component is considerable. Another effect is that photons harder than 300 keV can give a signal in the 50–300 keV range as they interact in the detector via Compton scattering. Both effects enhance the 50–300 keV count rate with respect to the photon flux in the same energy range and are more pronounced for harder GRBs.

## 6 The Sample and the Data Archive

We performed the scan of the DISCLA data for the full 9.1 years of BATSE observations up to the CGRO deorbiting (TJD 8369–11690). The number of events in our sample classified as GRBs is 3906, 1838 of them are non-triggered, and 2068 we identified with BATSE triggers. The peak count rate distributions of these GRBs are shown in Figure 6. Note that some non-triggered events are very strong (the strongest one has a peak flux of $`24\mathrm{ph}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$). The reason for BATSE not detecting some strong bursts is the dead time when the trigger was disabled during data readouts or when CGRO passed through regions of very high ionospheric activity. On the other hand, a few brightest BATSE GRBs are missing from our sample because their amplitude overflowed the two byte integer in the BATSE archive records and we were not able to process them.

Durations of GRBs were estimated using $`T_{90}`$ (Kouveliotou et al. 1993), i.e., as the time interval between the emission of 5% and 95% of the total burst photon fluence. The measurement of $`T_{90}`$ has considerable uncertainties when applied to weak bursts. The result depends on the time intervals (windows) where the signal and the background are measured and therefore depends on the subjective impressions of the researcher estimating what is the signal and what are the fluctuations of the background. The duration distribution for our sample is shown in Figure 6. One can see that non-triggered bursts are slightly shorter on average. This can be explained by the brightness dependent bias: losses of some episodes of weak bursts.

The relation between our and the BATSE estimates of $`T_{90}`$ is shown in Figure 6. Large deviations are associated with events consisting of widely separated episodes with significantly different brightnesses. One of the two teams can easily lose the weakest episode. Another problem is poor precision in the estimation of the fluence distribution as it depends on the details of the background fitting. If there is a precursor or an aftercursor with the fluence around 0.05 of the total one, then one team can include this episode into $`T_{90}`$, the other team can exclude it. Note, that deviations between our and the BATSE estimates are of both signs and approximately symmetric for long GRBs. Our estimates of $`T_{90}`$ for short events are strongly biased due to the 1.024 s resolution and the Poisson fluctuations. There is a large probability that an event with $`T_{90}<1`$ s will be distributed in two time bins (and therefore will be estimated as 2 s long) or will merge with a nearby Poisson fluctuation.

The distribution of the best fit locations of the GRBs in our sample over the sky is shown in Figure 6. No significant deviations from the BATSE exposure function (see Paciesas et al. 1999; and Figure 7.3) have been found.

### 6.1 Comparison with the BATSE and Kommers et al. Catalogs

During the period of our scan BATSE triggered 2704 GRBs. Therefore we missed 636 of the BATSE triggered GRBs. We estimated at a previous stage of the scan (Stern et al. 2000b) that $``$ 70% of these GRBs were lost due to gaps in the DISCLA data, $``$ 20% were too short to be detected at 1.024 s resolution, and $``$ 10% were missed due to various human mistakes.

K98 scanned the time interval TJD 8600–10800 and found 873 non-triggered GRBs. We found 1132 non-triggered bursts during that time interval, 745 of them are in the catalog of K98. Kommers (1999, private communication; see also K00) inspected the 387 of our non-triggered events that K98 missed. Kommers confirmed 224 of these events as probable GRBs. 24 of the events were classified by him as particle precipitations, and 7 as noise. 90 of our events were not classified as the off-line trigger of K98 missed those events due to nearby data gaps. 31 events were classified as “unknown” for their softness (i.e., a very weak or no significant signal in energy channel 3).

We checked most of the 128 events from the K98 catalog that are missing in our sample. We confirm 90 of them as GRBs, 13 we classify as particle precipitations, 4 as long delayed aftercursors of triggered GRBs, and 2 as solar flares. 12 of these 128 events were missed by our trigger. We do not include the 90 GRBs of K98 confirmed by us into our sample as the efficiency we estimate does not account for such additional events.

The comparison of our estimates of the peak fluxes of GRBs in the 50–300 keV range with those of K98 and BATSE is shown in Figure 6.1. One can see a reasonable agreement except for a few events where the disagreement could result from errors in the setting of the fitting windows. This could, for example, cause part of an event to be confused with the background. In general, the agreement between our and the BATSE estimates is better than between our and those of K98 in the medium brightness range where a meaningful comparison can be made.

The deviations between our best locations and those from the K98 and the BATSE catalogs are shown in Figure 6.1. Most of the deviations are within the $`1\sigma `$ errors. There is, however, a substantial tail to much larger deviations caused by systematic errors. Very large deviations can result from the choice of different local minima in the location fit. The peak in the distribution of the deviations between our and the BATSE locations is between 2 and 2.5 degrees for bright GRBs. This value approximately characterizes our typical systematic error for the locations. The average systematic error of LOCBURST as estimated by P99 is $`1.7`$ degrees. Our procedure is not optimized for precise localization of strong bursts, since we do not take into account nonlinear effects occurring at very high count rates and do not turn off less illuminated detectors in the fit as LOCBURST does. Our scheme is adjusted for convenient and reliable fits of weak bursts.

The uncertainties in the interpolation of the background is an additional source of systematic errors which can be substantial for weak GRBs. This bias is difficult to estimate. It can be responsible for large (more than $`1\sigma `$) deviations for weak events.

TABLE 1
Parameters for the 11 weakest GRBs in the sample     ID $`c`$ $`I`$ Sign. $`\delta _1`$ $`\delta _4`$        (deg) (deg)  08730a 0.049 0.072 17 18 37  08913c 0.049 0.088 11 23 43  09201c 0.045 0.076 15 33 70  09486b 0.045 0.076 14 24 47  09882b 0.047 0.077 9 33 61  10237b 0.047 0.081 10 39 84  10330a 0.045 0.072 8.5 37 67  10353d 0.038 0.066 16 20 41  10757a 0.047 0.081 7.5 24 75  10798a 0.044 0.075 9.5 39 84  10856d 0.038 0.088 14 44 60

ID is the event identifier consisting of TJD plus an identifying letter; $`c`$ is peak count rate in units of $`\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$; $`I`$ is peak photon flux in units of $`\mathrm{ph}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$; significance is estimated using the residual $`\chi ^2`$ relative to the linear background in units of $`\sigma =\sqrt{2N}`$, where $`N`$ is the number of the degrees of freedom; $`\delta _1`$ and $`\delta _4`$ are the sizes of the $`1\sigma `$ and $`4\sigma `$ confidence areas (see §4).

### 6.2 Bursts near the Detection Threshold

The weakest events of the sample have peak fluxes below $`0.1\mathrm{ph}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$. They have been detected due to their long duration using the 4 or 8 second trigger time scales. They are not necessarily the least significant events. One can get a feeling of the weakest part of our sample from Figure 6.1 and Table 1, where we present information on the 11 weakest events detected in the scan and classified as GRBs. The events in Figure 6.1 and Table 1 are marked by their names consisting of the TJD when the event was detected and an identifying letter. All are more than 20 s long (shorter events are not significant at these brightnesses), are significant, and have good $`\chi ^2`$ maps. The detection efficiency in this brightness range is $`0.05`$.

### 6.3 The Data Archive

The electronic archive888The archive is available at: http://www.astro.su.se/groups/head/grb\_archive.html (Stern & Tikhomirova 1999) contains the following data:

1. Table with event identifiers, arrival times, coordinates, peak fluxes, and duration estimates ($`T_{90}`$ and $`N_{50}`$, i.e., the number of 1.024 s bins in original DISCLA data, where the signal exceeds 50% of the peak value). BATSE trigger numbers are given for triggered events. Events identified with the GRBs of the K98 catalog are marked. Events in proximity of the data gaps are also marked. See Table 2.
2. Fragments of raw DISCLA data in FITS format covering the events. The typical time interval is 300 seconds for shorter ($`<100`$ s) events. For longer events the time interval is extended.
3. Time profiles as the sum of the count rates in the two brightest detectors and in energy channels #2 and #3 (the 50–300 keV band) in ASCII format. This is the simplest and the most compact representation for the time profiles.
4. Time profiles of GRBs as the fitting count rate, $`C_{ik}`$, with subtracted background, see §3 and §5.1, for the four LAD energy channels in ASCII format. This representation has a better signal/noise ratio than the sum of the count rates in any combination of detectors.
5. All distributions presented in this paper in both graphical and numerical form.

## 7 Tests for non-GRB Contaminations

All our tests for non-GRB contaminations were performed on the sample of 3678 events detected up to TJD 11499 (8.6 years of observations).

### 7.1 Possible Types of the Contamination

We can divide the possible non-GRB contaminations of the sample into the following categories:

1. Poisson or non-Poisson background fluctuations. The least significant GRBs of our sample are too significant to be reproduced by pure Poisson fluctuations. There are however significant variations of the background due to ionospheric phenomena, occultations of astrophysical sources, and noise-generating sources. Such events do not pass either the $`\delta _4`$-criterion or the “isolation” criterion (see §4). Nevertheless, we should admit the existence of some cases where a fluctuation may pass all tests. This kind of fluctuations is almost time-symmetric. Therefore we can test for such a kind of contamination by searching for “negative bursts” in sign-inverted count rate data. We performed such tests for 200 days of data records taken in different intervals over a few years representing various background conditions. The rate of triggers was practically the same as in the normal scan. However, only 2 events passed the objective criteria described in §4 (mainly they were rejected by the $`\delta _4`$ criterion). Both events are within the ”$`2\sigma `$ area” of Cyg X-1 and both are not enough isolated, so they should be rejected subjectively. Thus we constrain the contamination of sign-symmetric background fluctuations to be less than $`0.5`$% of the events.

2. Ionospheric events such as particle precipitation. Particle precipitation is a frequent phenomenon taking place at high latitudes: the satellite flies through a cloud of energetic particles emitting bremsstrahlung. Then a more or less time-symmetric hump of counts is recorded in all or most of the detectors. Such events are easily recognizable by comparable signals in detectors facing opposite directions and, correspondingly, by a bad $`\chi ^2`$ map (many local minima of $`\chi ^2`$ over a wide area of the sky) and a large residual $`\chi ^2`$ (above 0.1 of its initial value). If the precipitation occurs at some distance from the satellite path, the time profiles in different detectors do not match and again we obtain a bad location fit. The most dangerous events are distant ionospheric flares with fast (shorter than hundred seconds) variability. We observed such events recognizing them by “context”, i.e., they occur at a high general ionospheric activity at high latitudes and appear in long series.

3. Solar flares and known variable X-ray sources (Cyg X-1, bright X-ray transients, and known X-ray pulsars). Solar flares are not a considerable source of the contamination as they are much softer than GRBs. There is some small overlap in hardness. For this reason, we reject some events which could be soft GRBs if they are consistent in location with the Sun.

4. Unknown astrophysical sources emitting bursts similar to GRBs. These could be Galactic accreting black holes, hard bursts of other X-ray pulsars, or unknown phenomena (i.e., huge stellar flares). We cannot discriminate such events individually if they overlap with GRBs in their characteristics. We can only sense such contaminations statistically. Such a statistical analysis is presented below.

### 7.2 Hardness Ratios

GRBs are on average harder than any other kind of events that can mimic a GRB. We plot several examples of non-GRB events of known origin together with GRBs in a hardness – brightness diagram, Figure 7.2, where the hardness ratio is that between the counts in the 50–300 keV and the 20–50 keV energy bands. Outbursts of Cyg X-1 have an almost constant hardness ratio. It is slightly smaller than the average ratio for GRBs. Ionospheric flares have a wider dispersion and partly overlap with GRBs in their hardness ratios, while being softer on average. Bursts of X-ray pulsars are on average considerably softer than GRBs. However, their hardness distribution overlaps with that of GRBs and some hard well-isolated pulses could be included into the sample as GRBs. Large (tens of events) contamination of this kind would be revealed in the angular distributions of GRBs. The softest events we deal with are solar flares. Their overlap with GRBs in hardness is very small as seen in Figure 7.2.

If the weakest part of our sample were considerably contaminated with some non-GRB events, we could observe this in the hardness distribution of weak events (this is hardly so for Cyg X-1 which has almost the same hardness ratio as weak GRBs). However, the hardness ratios for the weakest events smoothly extend the hardness versus brightness correlation of brighter GRBs as seen in Figures 7.2 and 7.2. Thus the statistics of the hardness ratios for the weakest bursts does not demonstrate any indications of a considerable contamination.

### 7.3 Angular Distributions

Each kind of non-GRB events has its specific non-isotropic angular distribution which can affect the angular distribution of events of the sample if the latter is contaminated with non-GRBs. Here we analyze several angular distributions of events in the sample. Each of them is sensitive to some kind of non-GRB contamination. Since the weakest part of the sample is more likely to be contaminated, we analyze some angular distributions using the subsample of the weakest GRBs. The polar angular distributions for both real and test bursts are consistent with the BATSE sky exposure function (Paciesas et al. 1999) as seen in Figure 7.3.

The distribution of GRBs relative to the Earth’s horizon is shown in Figure 7.3. The shape of the distribution is reasonable: an isotropic distribution above the horizon and a clear step at the horizon. There is no excess of events towards the horizon which could appear if the sample contains many misidentified events of terrestrial (ionospheric) origin.

No excess of events towards the Sun has been found. Figure 7.3 demonstrates a very wide separation between solar flares and GRBs in a plot of hardness ratio versus angular distance from Sun. One can conclude from Figure 7.3 that the contamination of the sample by solar flares is negligible.

The distribution of weak GRBs and weak test bursts ($`P<0.2\mathrm{ph}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$) relative to the direction to Cyg X-1 is shown in Figure 7.3. There is an evident deficit of both test and real bursts in the direction to Cyg X-1. This is natural as we missed many weak bursts in that direction when subtracting the signal from Cyg X-1. The depression is slightly deeper in the case of test bursts. The corresponding expected number of real bursts in the two last bins (a cone of half opening angle $`26^\mathrm{o}`$ around Cyg X-1) is 11, while the real number is 15. The difference is not significant, of course. The formal $`1\sigma `$ confidence interval for contamination by Cyg X-1 is $`4\pm 5`$ events. Brighter outbursts of Cyg X-1 are very rare.

Contaminating X-ray pulsars and variable X-ray sources would give an excess of weak bursts in the direction of the Galactic Center. Actually there is, on the contrary, a deficit of both real and test weak bursts in the direction of the Galactic Center. A small fraction of this deficit is explained by the coverage function. A stronger effect appears as a result of worse background conditions in that direction, mainly due to Cyg X-1 ($`60^\mathrm{o}`$ from the Galactic Center direction).

The formal $`1\sigma `$ confidence interval for a Galactic Center subpopulation in our sample for a cone of $`37^\mathrm{o}`$ half opening angle in the direction of the Galactic Center (where both of the X-ray pulsars shown in Figure 7.2 are located) is $`10\pm 10`$ events. Similarly we do not see any excess of weak events towards the galactic plane.

### 7.4 Dependence on the Satellite Latitude

The intensity of ionospheric activity strongly depends on the satellite latitude. Particularly, the frequency of particle precipitations sharply increases at high latitudes. Therefore the distribution of the satellite latitude, when an event of our sample was recorded, is sensitive to the contamination of the sample by the ionospheric events. Then we would have an excess of events detected at large Northen and Southern latitudes. The distribution of events along the satellite path should not be uniform as the background conditions are substantially worse at a high latitude. As far as we have common conditions for the detection of real and test bursts, an excess of real events relative to the test bursts can be estimated. Figure 7.3 shows the results of such a test for all and for the weakest events. There is no excess of real events relative to the test bursts at high latitudes. An approximate $`1\sigma `$ upper limit for the contamination of the sample by events of ionospheric origin at latitudes above $`\pm 20^\mathrm{o}`$ (where more than 90% of the particle precipitation events occur, see Fig. 7.3) is 42 events (i.e., 1.1%) for the full sample and 17 events taking into account only the weakest part of the sample where a misclassification is more probable (at $`P<0.2\mathrm{ph}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$, the 680 weakest GRBs).

### 7.5 Summary of Contamination Tests

Summarizing the results of the tests:

1. The contamination of the sample by solar flares is negligible.
2. The Cyg X-1 contribution is estimated as $`4\pm 5`$ events.
3. The contribution of all sources concentrated within $`37^\mathrm{o}`$ around the Galactic Center direction is constrained to be $`10\pm 10`$ events.
4. The least constrained source of contamination is produced by ionospheric phenomena because the corresponding angular distributions are the least determined. However, even in this case the contamination is constrained to be at the level of $`1\%`$.

We should admit the existence of some non-GRB isotropic background of events of a different nature but looking like GRBs. Then this is rather an issue of the classification of GRBs, which is beyond the scope of this paper.

## 8 The $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ Distribution

### 8.1 The Efficiency Function and the Corrected $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ Distribution

The efficiency function of the search is defined as the ratio of the number of detected test bursts to the number of test bursts applied to the data versus the expected peak count rate, $`c_e`$. It is shown by the histogram in Figure 8.1. For many applications, it is useful to have a simple analytical representation of the efficiency function. We find that this function can be well approximated by

$$E(c_e)=0.70\left\{1\mathrm{exp}\left[\left(\frac{c_e}{c_{e,\mathrm{o}}}\right)^2\right]\right\}^\nu ,$$
(5)
where two parameters $`c_{e,\mathrm{o}}=0.097\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`\nu =2.34`$ (see the smooth curve in Fig. 8.1)

The result of a direct correction of the measured peak count rate distribution (Fig. 6 and the dotted histogram in Fig. 8.1) using the efficiency function is shown in Figure 8.1 by the solid histogram. Such a correction is valid for reconstructing the $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ distribution only at peak brightnesses that sufficiently exceed the threshold such that the measured and the expected count rates are almost identical. There, the errors in the peak count rates are moderate and symmetric (see Fig. 5.2) and the efficiency changes smoothly. One sees that the corrected $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ distribution extends down to lower brightnesses almost straight without any indication of a turn-over. This result differs from previous interpretations of the data, which implied that the $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ distribution smoothly bends down at low brightnesses (see the data points of K00 in Fig. 8.1).

Our whole sample is not homogeneous because it contains short events where the peak flux estimate in 1 s time resolution is wrong. To eliminate the corresponding bias we excluded from the distribution all events consisting of one bin (i.e., where only one 1.024 s bin is above 0.5 of the peak flux value). The corresponding efficiency function was calculated using only those test bursts that produce events satisfying the above criterion. Then we have a more or less homogeneous estimate of the peak count rates. The $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ distribution of only long events is shown by crosses in Figure 8.1. Such a distribution is more relevant for cosmological fits than the total distribution.

### 8.2 The Efficiency Matrix and $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ Close to the Detection Threshold

When the burst peak flux is close to the detection threshold, the difference between the expected and the measured peak count rates can be significant. Therefore, in order to reconstruct the $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ distribution at low fluxes, we have to take into account the matrix of the probabilities of detecting a burst of a given expected count rate with a given measured count rate. Using test bursts from our sample, we constructed such a matrix. The “low brightness” end of this matrix is presented in Table 3 (see also Fig. 5.2). We can see the asymmetry of the matrix near the threshold (i.e., the off-diagonal elements are larger than the diagonal ones) which results from the selection bias discussed in §5.2.

In spite of the fact that we had $`\mathrm{11\; 100}`$ test bursts, the statistics at the low brightness end of the efficiency matrix is relatively poor and the error there is large. We can improve the situation by approximating the matrix by a smooth function of the expected and the measured count rates, $`c_e`$ and $`c_m`$, and by extrapolating this function to smaller count rates. We approximate the efficiency matrix with a factorized expression where the efficiency function, the peak brightness error, and the selection bias were fitted independently:

$$F(c_e,c_m)=E(c_e)\frac{1}{\sigma \sqrt{\pi }}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\mathrm{log}^2(c_m/c_{m,\mathrm{o}})}{2\sigma ^2}\right],$$
(6)
where $`E(c_e)`$ is given by equation (5), the log-normal factor describes the relative error of the measured count rate, $`\sigma =0.09(0.08/c_e)^{1/2}`$, and the selection bias is crudely expressed as $`c_{m,\mathrm{o}}=c_e+0.05\mathrm{exp}(c_e/0.05)`$.

As was mentioned above, the correction using the efficiency function is not exact especially near the threshold. One should deconvolve the observed peak brightness distribution (Fig. 6) using the efficiency matrix. This is easier to do with a forward folding method, i.e., fitting the observed distribution using a convolution of a hypothetical $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ distribution with the efficiency matrix. We cannot use “data points” like those in Figure 8.1 for the hypothetical $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ distribution as the forward folding in this case allows large fluctuations between neighboring data points and the result is unstable. One should use some smooth function as a hypothesis for the $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ distribution, convolve it with the efficiency matrix (6) and compare with the data. Such a fit is beyond the scope of the present paper.

## 9 Conclusions

With a careful off-line scan of the daily archival data, BATSE becomes a more sensitive instrument with better known characteristics. The detection threshold changes by a factor 2, from $`0.2\mathrm{ph}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$ to $`0.1\mathrm{ph}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$. The total number of detected GRBs increases by 70 per cent. If we consider only long events (short GRBs could be a different phenomenon), the gain is a factor of $`2`$. The recognition of the weakest GRBs is still confident and the contamination with events originating from trivial kinds of non-GRBs is small.

As a first result, using the new sample of GRBs with known detection efficiency, we pointed out that the $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ distribution does not show a turn-over at lower brightnesses implied by previous studies. One simple consequence is that the estimate of the number of GRBs in the visible Universe should be increased. Just the “visible” part of the $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ distribution implies 1200–1300 GRBs occurring per year at peak fluxes exceeding $`0.1\mathrm{ph}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$ (previous versions of the $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ distribution implied $`600`$ GRBs per year above $`0.18\mathrm{ph}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$). A possible extrapolation of the new $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}P`$ distribution to lower brightnesses would probably imply a much larger rate of up to several thousands of GRBs per year.

The best possible efficiency and scan quality have still not yet been achieved. When we repeated the scan for a fraction of data scanned early on, we found 13 new GRBs per 60 days. This means that an additional considerable increase of the statistics of the weakest GRBs is possible (as is an extension of the statistics of the weakest test bursts). There are obvious possibilities for improving the test burst method as was discussed in §2 and in Stern et al. (2000b), for improving the approximation of the background, etc. This means that a new scan is desirable.

This research made use of data obtained through the HEASARC Online Service provided by NASA/GSFC. We are grateful to R. Preece who supplied us with valuable information and suggested one of the used tests for the sample contamination. We are grateful to J. Kommers who inspected a large part of our sample and thus helped us to eliminate non-GRB contamination. We thank A. Skassyrskaia, A. Skorbun, E. Stern, V. Kurt, K. Semenkov, S. Masolkin, A. Sergeev, M. Voronkov, and F. Ryde for assistance. This work was supported by the Swedish Natural Science Research Council, the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Scientific Research, and the Swedish Institute. D. K. was supported by RFBR grant 97-02-16975.

TABLE 2
GRB characteristics     IDaafootnotemark:  Timebbfootnotemark:  BATSE Triggerccfootnotemark:  Peak Fluxddfootnotemark:  R.A.eefootnotemark:  Decl.eefootnotemark:  $`\delta _1`$eefootnotemark:  $`T_{90}`$fffootnotemark:  $`N_{50}`$ggfootnotemark:  Kommers Gap     (s) or 1 if not ($`\mathrm{ph}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$) (deg) (deg) (deg) (s) (bin) Cataloghhfootnotemark:  Flagiifootnotemark:   08369d 71474 107 0.373 220.0 10.5 6.1 207 37 0 0  08370b 6141 1 0.248 68.4 $``$6.4 8.6 83 21 0 0  08370f 71005 108 0.178 209.8 $``$45.6 34.1 4 2 0 0  08371a 2208 109 3.725 89.0 $``$16.0 0.2 95 27 0 1  08371c 20208 110 0.454 341.8 25.0 7.9 549 6 0 0  08372a 5386 1 0.336 246.2 65.4 7.6 8 5 0 0  08372d 80024 111 0.502 78.1 $``$22.5 3.8 84 25 0 0  08373a 14897 1 0.257 32.4 $``$46.1 21.4 85 5 0 0  08373c 32689 114 0.540 76.5 $``$19.2 11.1 370 5 0 0  08375b 11481 121 1.324 173.2 9.1 1.9 87 13 0 0  08375c 21537 1 0.259 315.3 $``$48.9 17.2 50 13 0 0  08376d 61501 130 3.561 133.6 1.9 1.4 203 15 0 0  08377a 30013 133 0.621 124.3 $``$1.9 6.1 174 22 0 0  08378b 40667 138 0.316 126.0 $``$21.4 17.1 3 1 0 0  08379b 25453 143 37.809 88.9 35.8 0.0 56 3 0 0  08379c$`\mathrm{}`$ 26090 1 0.291 214.7 $``$19.6 8.2 101 13 0 0

Table 2 is published in its entirety in the electronic edition of The Astrophysical Journal. See also ftp://ftp.astro.su.se/pub/head/grb/catalogs/etable2.txt.
A portion is shown here for guidance regarding its form and content.
aEvent identifier consisting of TJD plus an identifying letter.
bStart of the event within TJD.
cBATSE trigger number or 1 for non-triggered events.
dPeak flux in the 50 - 300 keV range.
eThe best fit coordinates (J2000) and the size of the $`1\sigma `$ confidence area.
fDuration.
gNumber of 1.024 s bins in the original DISCLA data where the signal exceeds 50% of the peak value.
hFlag identifying overlap with the K98 catalog. A 1 indicates existence in K98.
iFlag characterizing the data quality with non-zero values indicating proximity to the data gap.

TABLE 3
The “low brightness” part of the efficiency matrix     $`\mathrm{log}c_m`$ $`\mathrm{log}c_e`$   $`1.3`$ $`1.2`$ $`1.1`$ $`1.0`$ $`0.9`$ $`0.8`$ $`0.7`$    $`0.7`$ 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.7 11.7 43.1  $`0.8`$ 0.0 0.0 0.3 1.0 12.1 36.5 11.0  $`0.9`$ 0.0 0.0 1.8 10.4 28.6 11.2 0.7  $`1.0`$ 0.0 0.8 6.8 15.9 9.5 1.3 0.4  $`1.1`$ 0.0 4.3 6.9 6.5 1.0 0.1 0.0  $`1.2`$ 0.0 0.4 2.9 0.8 0.2 0.1 0.1  $`1.3`$ 0.0 1.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Probability $`F(c_e,c_m)`$ (in %) for the detection of a GRB with an expected peak count, $`c_e`$, and a measured peak count rate, $`c_m`$ ($`\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$). The vertical and horizontal bins are uniform in the logarithm of $`c`$. The lower edges of the bins are given in terms of $`\mathrm{log}(c_{e,m})`$.


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# Asymmetries in the production of Λ^ 0, Ξ⁻, and Ω⁻ hyperons in 500 GeV/𝑐 𝜋⁻ – Nucleon Interactions

## Abstract

Using data from Fermilab fixed-target experiment E791, we have measured particle-antiparticle production asymmetries for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$, $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ hyperons in $`\pi ^{}`$ – nucleon interactions at 500 GeV/$`c`$. The asymmetries are measured as functions of Feynman-x ($`x_F`$) and $`p_T^2`$ over the ranges $`0.12x_F0.12`$ and $`0p_T^24(GeV/c)^2`$. We find substantial asymmetries, even at $`x_F`$ = 0. We also observe leading-particle-type asymmetries which qualitatively agree with theoretical predictions.

Strange particle production is an important tool for studying how non-perturbative QCD affects light quark production and hadronization. One process that involves both production and hadronization is the leading particle effect. This effect is manifest as an enhancement in the production rate of particles which have one or more valence quarks in common with an initial state hadron compared to that of their antiparticles which have fewer valence quarks in common. This enhancement increases as the momentum of the produced particle increases, in the direction of the initial hadron with which the produced particle shares valence quarks. This process has been extensively studied in charm production in recent years from both experimental  and theoretical  points of view. The same type of leading particle effects have been seen in light hadron production  and are expected . Other effects, like the associated production of a kaon and a hyperon, can also contribute to an asymmetry in hyperon-antihyperon production .

As a byproduct of our charm program in Fermilab experiment E791, we collected a large sample of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$, $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}\mathrm{\Xi }^+`$, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\mathrm{\Omega }^+`$ hyperons which we have used to measure the particle-antiparticle production asymmetries reported here. For hyperons, the range of scaled longitudinal momentum $`x_F`$ ($`2p_L/\sqrt{s}`$) covered by our experiment was $`0.12x_F0.12`$. Given E791’s negative pion beam and nucleon target, we expect recombination effects  to produce different asymmetries in the beam and target fragmentation regions as the content of valence quarks in the beam and target hadrons differ. A growing asymmetry is expected in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ production as $`\left|x_F\right|`$ increases in the negative direction towards the target fragmentation region. A smaller asymmetry (or none at all) is expected for $`x_F>0`$, towards the beam fragmentation region, because $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ each share one valence quark with the incident pion. For $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}\mathrm{\Xi }^+`$ production, a growing asymmetry with $`\left|x_F\right|`$ is expected in both regions since the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ shares one valence quark with the $`\pi ^{}`$ as well as with the target particles ($`p`$ and $`n`$) whereas the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^+`$ shares none. No leading particle effects are expected for $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ or $`\mathrm{\Omega }^+`$ as they have no valence quarks in common with either the target or the beam.

Measurements of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ , $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}\mathrm{\Xi }^+`$, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\mathrm{\Omega }^+`$  production asymmetries in $`\pi ^{}`$Cu interactions at 230 GeV/$`c`$ have been reported in the literature. Additional measurements of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ asymmetry can be found in the experiments listed in , but in general light hadron production asymmetries in $`\pi ^{}N`$ interactions have not been studied extensively.

Experiment E791 recorded data from 500 GeV/$`c`$ $`\pi ^{}`$ interactions in five thin foils (one platinum and four diamond) separated by gaps of 1.38 to 1.39 cm. Each foil had a thickness of approximately 0.4$`\%`$ of a pion interaction length (0.5 mm for the upstream platinum target, and 1.6 mm for each of the carbon targets). The E791 spectrometer  in the Fermilab Tagged Photon Laboratory was a large-acceptance, two-magnet spectrometer augmented by eight planes of multiwire proportional chambers (MWPC) and six planes of silicon microstrip detectors (SMD) for beam tracking. The magnets provided a total transverse momentum kick of 512 MeV/$`c`$. Downstream of the target there were 17 planes of SMD’s for track and vertex reconstruction, 35 drift chamber planes, two MWPC’s, two multicell threshold Čerenkov counters, electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters (with apertures about 70 by 140 mr), and a muon detector. An important element of the experiment was its extremely fast data acquisition system  which was combined with a very open transverse-energy trigger to record a data sample of $`2\times 10^{10}`$ events. The trigger required that the total “transverse energy” (i.e., sum of the products of energy observed times the tangent of the angle from the target to each calorimeter segment) be at least 3 GeV.

For this analysis we use only interactions in the isoscalar carbon targets so that our results truly represent a “nucleon”, that is, the average of neutrons and protons. Most $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$’s decay before entering the drift chamber region (150 cm downstream of the targets) but downstream of the end of the silicon vertex detectors (50 cm from the targets), while some $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$’s and $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$’s decay in the silicon region.

Throughout this paper, references to a particle should be taken to include its antiparticle unless explicitly stated otherwise. $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$’s were reconstructed using the $`p\pi ^{}`$ decay mode. Proton and $`\pi ^{}`$ tracks were required to have a distance of closest approach less than 0.7 cm at the decay vertex and to have an invariant mass between 1.101 and 1.127 GeV/$`c^2`$. In addition, the ratio of the momentum of the proton to that of the pion was required to be larger than 2.5. The reconstructed $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ decay vertex formed by the two tracks was required to be downstream of the last target but upstream of the first magnet. For the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ production study, we removed $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$’s coming from $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ decay by requiring that the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ candidates have an impact parameter with respect to the primary vertex of less than 0.3 cm if decaying within the first 20 cm downstream of the target, and less than 0.4 cm otherwise. After these cuts, the remaining $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ contamination was $`1.5\%`$, having negligible effect on the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ asymmetry. The reconstructed mass distributions for this sample, for each interval of $`x_F`$ and $`p_T^2`$, were fit using a binned maximum likelihood method with a Gaussian signal plus a linear background. All bin widths were much larger than the experimental resolution of the variable binned. In the fit, the central reconstructed mass values and mass resolutions were fixed to values obtained from Monte Carlo simulation. Contamination from misidentified $`K_s^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ decays provided a flat background in these distributions in the range shown, and produced a negligible effect on the fit numbers of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$’s. The reconstructed mass distributions for the entire sample are shown in Figs. 1(a) and (b). For the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ analysis we use data from approximately 7$`\%`$ of the overall sample recorded for the experiment. The total signal, taken as the sum of background subtracted signal in each bin, was 2 587 870 $`\pm `$ 1 780 $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$’s and 1 690 030 $`\pm `$ 1 500 $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$’s.

$`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ were selected via the decay mode $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}\pi ^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ via the decay mode $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}K^{}`$. Beginning with a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ candidate, we added a third, distinct track as a possible pion or kaon daughter. All three tracks were required to have hits in the drift chamber region only. For these samples, we removed the requirement on the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ impact parameter. The invariant mass of the candidate hyperon (calculated from the known mass and measured momentum of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$, as determined by its two decay tracks, together with the third track) was required to be between 1.290 and 1.350 GeV/$`c^2`$ for the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ and between 1.642 and 1.702 GeV/$`c^2`$ for the $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$. The charged hyperon track, entirely in the SMD region, was required to be reconstructed. Its direction had to match that determined by its daughter tracks in the drift chamber region to within 1 mrad and it was required to have a distance of closest approach to the primary vertex of less than 100 $`\mu `$m. The $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ or $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ vertex (reconstructed from the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ and daughter $`\pi ^{}`$ or $`K^{}`$) was required to be downstream of the last SMD plane and upstream of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ vertex. The former requirement allows us to track the hyperon in the silicon. For the $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ sample, the third track was required to have a kaon signature in the Čerenkov counters and momentum in the range 6-40 GeV/$`c`$. For this momentum range, the Čerenkov kaon identification efficiency was about 85$`\%`$ and the pion misidentification rate was about 5$`\%`$.

As with the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ sample, the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}\mathrm{\Xi }^+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\mathrm{\Omega }^+`$ invariant mass plots were fit to a Gaussian signal plus linear background for each interval of $`x_F`$ and $`p_T^2`$. The total reconstructed mass distributions are shown in Figs. 1(c) through (f). With the final selection criteria and the full E791 data set, we found 996 180 $`\pm `$ 1 200 $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$, 706 620 $`\pm `$ 1 020 $`\mathrm{\Xi }^+`$, 8 750 $`\pm `$ 110 $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$, and 7 460 $`\pm `$ 100 $`\mathrm{\Omega }^+`$ after background subtraction. Again, these numbers and their errors come from the sum of signals in all bins. We checked that the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ contamination for the $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$’s, after all cuts, was negligible.

For each $`x_F`$ and $`p_T^2`$ bin and for each hyperon $`Y`$, we defined an asymmetry parameter $`A`$ as

$$A_{Y\overline{Y}}\frac{N_YN_{\overline{Y}}r_Y}{N_Y+N_{\overline{Y}}r_Y};r_Y=\frac{ϵ_Y}{ϵ_{\overline{Y}}},$$
(1)
where $`N_Y`$ ($`N_{\overline{Y}}`$) is the number of hyperons (antihyperons) produced in the bin, and $`ϵ_Y`$ ($`ϵ_{\overline{Y}}`$), the product of the geometrical acceptance and reconstruction efficiency for each hyperon (antihyperon). Values for the $`N`$’s were obtained from the individual fits to the mass plots for events selected to lie within each $`x_F`$ and $`p_T^2`$ range.

Selection criteria for the particle and antiparticle samples were identical. However, geometrical acceptances and reconstruction efficiencies were not necessarily the same, mostly due to an inefficient region in the drift chambers produced by the negative pion beam. To evaluate this effect, a large sample of Monte Carlo (MC) events was created using the Pythia/Jetset event generators . These were projected through a detailed simulation of the E791 spectrometer to simulate “data” in digitized format which was then processed through the same computer reconstruction code as that used for data from the detector. Candidate events were then subjected to the same selection criteria as that used for data. To account for correlations between $`x_F`$ and $`p_T^2`$, efficiencies were determined in bins of the two parameters. The ratios of efficiencies $`ϵ_Y/ϵ_{\overline{Y}}`$ $`(x_F,p_T^2)`$ evaluated from the MC samples are shown for each hyperon in Figs. 2(a)–(c). For the $`x_F`$ range of our data, there are only minor differences between particle and antiparticle efficiencies. This result was expected, as hyperon decays with tracks aimed at the inefficient part of the drift chambers were rare. As a further check, we verified that our results were not significantly affected by symmetrically eliminating these events.

The asymmetries obtained using Eq. 1 are shown in Figs. 3 and 4 for the hyperons $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$, $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$, as a function of $`x_F`$ and $`p_T^2`$, respectively. For each hyperon the asymmetry is presented as functions of $`x_F`$ for different intervals of $`p_T^2`$, and also as functions of $`p_T^2`$ for different intervals of $`x_F`$. The asymmetries show a substantial dependence on $`x_F`$ and some dependence on $`p_T^2`$. There is evidence for a correlation between $`x_F`$ and $`p_T^2`$.

The asymmetry $`A(x_F)`$ integrated over $`p_T^2`$, and the asymmetry $`A(p_T^2)`$ integrated over $`x_F`$, are presented in Fig. 5. This figure shows asymmetries for all three types of hyperons. The results are also listed in Table 1 along with statistical and systematic errors.

We looked for systematic effects from the following sources:

* Event selection criteria;
* The minimum transverse energy in the calorimeters required in the event trigger;
* Uncertainties in calculating relative efficiencies for particle and antiparticle;
* Effect of the 2.5$`\%`$ $`K^{}`$ contamination in the beam.

The first two effects were found to be negligible. A significant error came from the spectrometer efficiencies, and these uncertainties are included as systematic errors in Table 1.

The effect of the $`K^{}`$ contamination in the beam was difficult to estimate as no data on hyperon asymmetries in $`K^{}`$ production in this $`x_F`$ range existed. However, even for equal $`\pi ^{}`$ and $`K^{}`$ production of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$’s (as opposed to $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$’s) and 100$`\%`$ asymmetry for kaons (i.e., no $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ production), only a 1.5$`\%`$ change would occur in the final result. As for the $`\pi ^{}`$ ($`\overline{u}d`$) beam, no rise in the asymmetry in the positive $`x_F`$ direction was expected since both $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}(uds)`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}(\overline{u}\overline{d}\overline{s})`$ shared one valence quark with the $`K^{}(\overline{u}s)`$ beam. Similarly, any rise in the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}(dss)\mathrm{\Xi }^+(\overline{d}\overline{s}\overline{s})`$ asymmetry should have been approximately the same as for a $`\pi ^{}`$ beam since, in both cases, the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ hyperon shared one valence quark with the beam particle. Since the $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}(sss)`$ was a leading particle for a $`K^{}`$ beam, in this case some asymmetry was expected in the forward $`x_F`$ region. We noted the low $`K^{}`$ content of the beam and the low $`x_F`$ of our data. In any event, no effect was evident. Thus we did not correct our measured values of asymmetry for possible effects of kaon contamination in the beam.

The asymmetry curves for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ and for $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ cross over at $`x_F0.02`$. At larger positive $`x_F`$ the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ asymmetry becomes considerably larger than that for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$. The fact that both beam and target particles share one valence quark with the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ and none with the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^+`$, would predict that the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ asymmetries rise with increasing $`\left|x_F\right|`$ in both positive and negative $`x_F`$ regions, as observed in our data. In contrast, the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ shares two valence quarks with the target and only one with the beam particles, while the $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ only shares one with the beam. Consequently the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}`$ asymmetry rises sharply for $`x_F<0`$ and not for $`x_F>0`$. The $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\mathrm{\Omega }^+`$ asymmetry appears to be constant. Notice that neither the $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ nor the $`\mathrm{\Omega }^+`$ shares valence quarks with either the beam or target particles.

The observed positive asymmetry for $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ could arise, in part, from the associated production of kaons. This could also be the origin of the observed positive asymmetry near $`x_F=0.0`$ for $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$’s and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$’s. Part of the associated production enhancement of baryons, as opposed to antibaryons, may come from the higher energy thresholds for the production of antibaryons. For production of hyperons, the conservation of strangeness requires only the associated production of one or more kaons. For production of an antihyperon, baryon number as well as strangeness must be conserved, requiring the associated production of at least two additional baryons, thus raising the energy thresholds and favoring particle over antiparticle production .

The behavior of the three asymmetries shown in Fig. 5 gives evidence for the leading particle effect. In the backward region ($`x_F<0`$), a larger asymmetry is observed when there is a larger difference in the number of valence quarks in common with the target, for hyperon and antihyperon. Evidence for a similar effect in the production of $`D^\pm `$ mesons in the forward region ($`x_F>0`$) was presented by the E791 collaboration  and others . The E791 collaboration has also studied asymmetries in the production of $`D_s^\pm `$  and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^\pm `$ . However, leading particle effects for charmed hadrons typically occur at larger values of $`x_F`$ than they do for strange hadrons.

The Pythia/Jetset  model describes only some features of our results, and those only qualitatively, as can be seen in Fig. 5. This model predicts small values of asymmetry for $`x_F0`$; this is in contrast with our results which range from 0.08 to 0.18 in this region. Our data show that, even in the central region, the asymmetries are not zero, and suggest that leading particle effects play an even larger role than expected as $`\left|x_F\right|`$ increases.

In summary we report the most precise, systematic study to date of the production asymmetry for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ hyperons in a single experiment. The range of $`x_F`$ covered, $`0.12x_F0.12`$, allows the study of asymmetries in regions close to $`x_F=0`$ for the first time in a fixed target experiment. Some evidence for possible correlations between $`x_F`$ and $`p_T^2`$ is observed (see Figs. 3 and 4). Our results for particle-antiparticle asymmetries are consistent with the experimental results obtained by previous experiments  (see Table 2) but with smaller uncertainties. Our results can be described qualitatively in terms of the energy thresholds for the production of hyperons and antihyperons together with their associated particles and a model in which the recombination of valence and sea quarks in the beam and target particles contributes to the hyperon and antihyperon production in an asymmetrical manner .

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the staffs of Fermilab and of all the participating institutions. This research was supported by the Brazilian Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, CONACyT (Mexico), the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. Fermilab is operated by the Universities Research Associates, Inc., under contract with the United States Department of Energy.


text:
# Molecular cloud complexes in detail: Interferometric observations of GMCs in M 31

## 1 The Framework

We have started a complete high-resolution survey of the 12CO in M 31 in 1995 in order to investigate the large- and small-scale properties of the molecular gas with the highest possible angular resolution and sensitivity (see the contribution of M. Guélin, this volume). One aim of this survey is to pinpoint the giant molecular cloud complexes (GMCs) in this close-by spiral galaxy for follow-up observations. Such a precise large-scale map is mandatory as a basis for further investigation because the arm-interarm contrast of the molecular gas has shown to be very high with a rather low general “filling factor” of the projected disk. The information from the survey now allows e.g. to select pointings for weaker tracers or to choose regions that merit detailed investigations with high angular resolution with the Plateau de Bure interferometer (PdBI).

M 31 is a quiescent galaxy with a low star forming rate, showing well-defined spiral arm segments; however, they resisted up to now against being put into a single global pattern. The high inclination makes a kinematical analysis on the basis of the Hi data difficult (see e.g. Braun 1991), but rather large streaming motions had been derived in the north-eastern part from CO observations (Ryden & Stark 1986). The mapped areas of all such earlier work were however generally by far too small to derive general properties of the molecular gas. Our survey data now clearly show that the magnitude of non-circular motions is only of the order of 10 km s-1 which is the typical line width of the observed molecular gas. The total range we observed is from about 4 km s-1 to something like 15 km s-1 for individual spectra. However, we found strong small-scale disturbances at many places.

Typical examples are double- or multiple-component spectra, broad lines and short-range spatial variations (cf. Fig. 1). Unlike similar observations in the Milky Way, the location of the molecular clouds with respect to other constituents of the ISM can be determined to a much higher precision – in particular, the distance ambiguities in the interpretation are virtually absent in the M 31 CO data. Therefrom we are led to conclude that we are not observing chance line-of-sight coincidences of spatially separated clouds, but true local effects. The sizes of such regions are of the order of a few primary beams of the PdBI, hence ideally suited for a detailed observation.

## 2 The sample

During the observations for the survey a large number of interesting regions showed up throughout the disk of M 31. For more detailed investigations some of them were subsequently covered at a denser sampling in both, the 12CO(1-0) and (2-1) transitions, with typical map sizes of a few ten arcminutes squared. For the PdBI observations, we choose GMCs or GMC groups that can be covered with a not too large mosaic while representing a broad spectrum of the cloud complexes found. The innermost cloud in the sample is located at a radius of $`5`$ kpc, the outermost group at $`18`$ kpc – this spans the whole range over which we detected CO emission in the survey. In addition, we choose other GMCs with various morphologies in different environments.

Up to now, our sample consists of six regions covered with 2- to 9-field mosaics – mainly in the south-western part of the galaxy, but also covering the prominent association of molecular gas on the northern major axis at a distance of 5 kpc from the centre.

## 3 A remarkable pair

Among the first objects studied in this way were two neighbouring complexes in the main “ring” of emission, separated by less than a kpc (at the location of the dust clouds D47 and D84; see Hodge 1981). One of them shows a relatively strong ($`1`$K, $`\mathrm{\Delta }v22`$km s-1), single peak in the survey (D84), the other two narrow peaks separated by $`20`$km s-1 (D47) – see Fig. 1. They have not only the same distance to the centre, they lie even within the same continuous ridge of emission. Nevertheless, there must be a substantial difference in the local conditions. The Hi map (Brinks & Shane 1984) shows many places with such multiple spectra, but in view of the thickness of the atomic gas disk, the inclination of M 31 and possible distortions (Braun 1991) they can be explained as multiple arms in the same line of sight (Berkhuijsen et al. 1993).

This explanation is not applicable here, however: the disk of molecular gas is much thinner than the Hi disk and the observed large-scale structure clearly excludes the existence of multiple arms within one line of sight. The same holds for the spectra in the D39 region (which are also multiple-peaked or unusually broad) since it is located close to the major axis. Fortunately, a wealth of complementary data exists for M 31 which allows to look for possible influences. In particular, we produced an overlay with the H$`\alpha `$ map from Devereux et al. (1994) and compared the positions with other signs of activity such as stellar associations.

For these three cases we can deduce an easy explanation: the presence of multiple-peaked spectra corresponds to enhanced star formation activity in the vicinity of the GMC (cf. Fig. 2). The region of D39 is known to host several OB associations and is adjacent to one of the biggest Hi holes of M 31 (Brinks & Bajaja 1986, #8). Close to D47 we find the bubble-shaped Hii region 281 (Pellet et al. 1978) which is one of the ten brightest in M 31 and the brightest of this morphology. The CO ridge tends to avoid the bubble, but the filaments visible in Fig. 2 are located right at the border of the ionized gas. D84, on the other hand, is rather far from any sign of activity – neither strong H$`\alpha `$ nor large Hi bubbles are found here. This leads to the suggestion that such local energy sources are responsible for line splittings or multiple components in the CO emission. The nature of the interaction needs however further investigation, as well as the rôle of the individual constituents (stars, ionized, neutral and molecular gas).

## 4 GMCs in detail

To further investigate the structure of the GMCs, we obtained data of an inner cloud complex (in the D153 dust cloud, galactocentric radius $`5`$ kpc) at the highest possible angular resolution. We used the “A”-configuration of the PdBI which allows sub-arcsecond resolution in the CO(2-1) transition. At the distance of M 31, this corresponds to about 4 pc in linear scale.

Although the survey data show an almost structure-less blob at this position, it is clear from Fig. 3 that there is significant substructure in this complex. What looks like a well-defined entity in the survey at $`23^{\prime \prime }`$ resolution ($`90`$ pc) is resolved into at least four individual clumps at the higher angular resolution. In this case, the basic elements seem to be clumps (similar to D84) rather than filaments as seen in D47. It has to be checked, however, whether this is a true distinction depending on the activity of the particular region or an effect of the lower resolution of the D47 and D84 data.

A comparison between the data at different resolutions allows us to check mass determinations on the basis of the virial theorem. Some calculations on the basis of the low-resolution data turned out to be wrong by more than a factor of ten. In the D39 region, this virial mass is up to a factor of 100 higher than the mass derived from high-resolution data or the optically thin mm dust emission. Hence, a systematic study of the GMC properties at various resolutions and comparing different approaches is essential to obtain better guidelines for the derivation of such fundamental values.

## 5 (Preliminary) conclusions

A statistical analysis of the GMCs in the survey as well as a more detailed investigation of the properties of the clumps in the PdBI data is under way. Already the few rather compact cloud complexes investigated thus far hint however at important implications for the properties of molecular gas agglomerations and their analysis:
$``$ CO spectra in M 31 showing multiple lines are usually confined to small regions.
$``$ The thin molecular disk and the high spatial resolution indicate a true local phenomenon.
$``$ Many of these spectra are found near tracers of locally enhanced star formation.
$``$ The internal structure of such GMCs consists of well separated filaments or clumps.
$``$ The velocity separation of the components is significantly greater than the streaming motions.
$``$ Even seemingly quiescent clouds may consist of individual clumps which may afflict the derivation of the parameters of the cloud, such as mass or temperature.
This is the first time that such a wide range of scales of the molecular gas emission can be investigated and searched for clues about its state, evolution into stars and mutual interactions with the other constituents of the ISM.

## Acknowledgements

It is a pleasure to thank the PdBI staff and astronomers for the excellently performed observations. However, the tragical accidents stopped the completion of the high-resolution data set (shown in Fig. 3) among many other projects. This work is therefore dedicated to the memory of the victims.

A lot of work for the survey was done by Ph. Hoernes and in particular by Ch. Nieten, who set up (and efficiently uses) the present data reduction and analysis routines capable to handle the huge amounts of information fast enough.

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