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Description
A list of 205 {gamma}-ray strong objects was reported recently as a result of a three-month integration with the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. We attempted identification of these objects, cross-correlating the {gamma}-ray positions with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) positions of a large all-sky sample of extragalactic radio sources selected on the basis of their parsec-scale flux density. The original associations reported by the Fermi team are confirmed, and six new identifications are suggested. A Monte Carlo analysis shows that the fraction of chance associations in our analysis is less than 5%, and confirms that the vast majority of {gamma}-ray bright extragalactic sources are radio-loud blazars with strong parsec-scale jets. A correlation between the parsec-scale radio and {gamma}-ray flux is supported by our analysis of a complete VLBI flux-density-limited sample of extragalactic jets. The effectiveness of using a VLBI catalog to find associations between {gamma}-ray detections and compact extragalactic radio sources, especially near the Galactic plane, is demonstrated. It is suggested that VLBI catalogs should be used for future identification of Fermi/LAT objects.
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