Observations of cosmic gamma-ray bursts with the main detector of the SIGMA telescope onboard the Granat Observatory

We present the observations of cosmic gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with the main detector of the SIGMA telescope onboard the Granat Observatory from January 1990 through September 1994. The observations were carried out in the energy range 35-1300 keV. We detected 36 GRBs and 31 high-energy solar flares during this period. No GRB fell within the main field of view; they were all recorded by the "secondary optics" of the telescope. The SIGMA telescope recorded relatively bright bursts with peak fluxes of 10(-6)-10(-4) erg s(-1) cm(-2) in the 100-500-keV energy band. Stable detector background allows the long-term variability of GRB sources on a time scale of similar to 1000 s to be studied. The results of our search for early afterglows of GRBs are presented. The flux averaged over all bursts in the interval 100-800 s after the main event is 0.36 +/- 0.14 counts s(-1)(35-300 keV), suggesting that there is soft gamma-ray emission on this time scale after a considerable number of GRBs. (C) 2000 MAIK "Nauka/Interperiodica".