3 Discussion

The consequence of an association is that the $\gamma$-ray peak luminosity of GRB980425 is $L_{\gamma} = (5.5 \pm 0.7) \ 10^{46}$ erg s^-1 (24-1820 keV) and its total $\gamma$-ray energy budget $(8.1 \pm 1.0) \ 10^{47}$ erg (assuming isotropic emission). These values are much smaller than those of "normal" GRBs which have peak luminosities of up to 10⁵² erg s^-1 and total energies up to several times 10⁵³ erg. It is then likely that very different mechanisms can produce GRBs which cannot be distinguished on the basis of their $\gamma$-ray properties, and that models explaining GRB 980425/SN 1998bw are unlikely to apply to "normal'' GRBs and vice versa. However, searches for correlations between GRBs and supernovae do not find evidence for such a relation but allow that a fraction of Ib/Ic-type supernovae produce a GRB (Kippen et al. 1998; Graziani et al. 1999).