The Emax distribution of gamma‐ray bursts observed by the PHEBUS experiment

We present the Emax distribution of 78 cosmic gamma‐ray bursts (GRB) recorded by the PHEBUS experiment during the first two years of operation. This distribution is compared with that obtained from the Gamma‐Ray Spectrometer (on SMM) cosmic event data set. We observe that the proportion of events displaying high‐energy emission above 1 MeV (hereafter P(≳1)) is lower in the PHEBUS population of GRBs. The possible reasons for this difference are discussed and several tests are applied to understand the influence of statistical effects on the value of P(≳1).