Population Studies of the Galactic Unidentified GeV Sources

S. Mereghetti, A. Chen, S. Vercellone, M. Tavani
IFC CNR - MILANO ITALY

We present preliminary modelling of the populations of gamma-ray point sources observable by AGILE as constrained by the 3rd EGRET source catalog. We wrote Monte Carlo simulations to produce model populations which we compared to the EGRET catalog. We examined models containing an isotropic component and one or two galactic components; preliminary results indicate that two galactic components produce a statistically improved fit. We use the model populations to produce predictions for AGILE. We discuss the ability of AGILE to contribute to the understanding of the origins of the galactic components. Recent work by other authors, including the Gould's belt hypothesis of Gehrels et al., will be addressed.


sandro@ifctr.mi.cnr.it