The Correlation of Gamma-Ray Bursts with Active Galactic Nuclei

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We search for angular correlation of gamma-ray bursts with cataloged quasars, BL Lac objects, and AGN using a large sample of relatively well-localized bursts detected by WATCH on board GRANAT and EURECA, IPN, and BATSE (327 bursts total). A statistically significant (99.99% confidence) correlation between GRB and MB<-21 AGN in the redshift range 0.1<z<0.32 is found. The correlation with AGN is detected, with a lower significance, in three independent GRB datasets. The correlation amplitude implies that, depending on the AGN catalog completeness, 10% to 100% of bursts with peak fluxes in the range 3-30x10**-6 erg/s/cm² in the 100-500 keV band are physically related to AGN. The established distance scale corresponds to the energy release of order 10**52 ergs per burst.