A Systematic Search for Short-term Variability of EGRET Sources

The 3rd EGRET Catalog contains 170 unidentified high-energy (E>100 MeV) gamma-ray sources, and there is great interest in the nature of these sources. One means of determining sources class is the study of flux variability on time scales of days; pulsars are believed to be stable on these scales while blazars are known to be highly variable. In addition, previous work has led to the discovery of 2CG 135+01 and GRO J1838-04, candidates for a new high-energy gamma-ray source class. These sources display transient behavior but cannot be associated with any known blazars. These considerations have led us to conduct a systematic search for short-term variability in EGRET data, covering all viewing periods through cycle 4. Three unidentified sources show some evidence of variability on short time scales; the source displaying the most convincing variability, 3EG J2006-2321, is not easily identified as a blazar.