A sub-arcsec localised fast radio burst with a significant host galaxy dispersion measure contribution
M. Caleb, L. N. Driessen, A. C. Gordon, N. Tejos, L. Bernales, H. Qiu, J. O. Chibueze, B. W. Stappers, K. M. Rajwade, F. Cavallaro, Y. Wang, P. Kumar, W. A. Maj… 展开作者
M. Caleb, L. N. Driessen, A. C. Gordon, N. Tejos, L. Bernales, H. Qiu, J. O. Chibueze, B. W. Stappers, K. M. Rajwade, F. Cavallaro, Y. Wang, P. Kumar, W. A. Majid, R. S. Wharton, C. J. Naudet, M. C. Bezuidenhout, F. Jankowski, M. Malenta, V. Morello, S. Sanidas, M. P. Surnis, E. D. Barr, W. Chen, M. Kramer, W. Fong, C. D. Kilpatrick, J. Xavier Prochaska, S. Simha, C. Venter, I. Heywood, A. Kundu, F. Schussler
备注：
Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 14 pages, 10 figures
We present the discovery of FRB 20210410D, with the MeerKAT radio interferometer in South Africa, as part of the MeerTRAP commensal project. FRB 20210410D has a dispersion measure DM = 578.78 +/- 2 pc cm-3, and was localised to sub-arcsec precision in the 2s images made from the correlation data products. The localisation enabled the association of the FRB with an optical galaxy at z = 0.1415, which when combined with the DM places it above the 3sigma scatter of the Macquart relation. We attribute the excess DM to the host galaxy after accounting for contributions from the Milky Way's interstellar medium and halo, and the combined effects of the intergalactic medium and intervening galaxies. This is the first FRB that is not associated with a dwarf galaxy, to exhibit a likely large host galaxy DM contribution. We do not detect any continuum radio emission at the FRB position or from the host galaxy down to a 3sigma RMS of 14.4 uJy/beam. The FRB has a scattering delay of 29.4 ms at 1 GHz, and exhibits candidate subpulses in the spectrum, which hint at the possibility of it being a repeating FRB. Although not constraining, we note that this FRB has not been seen to repeat in 7.28h at 1.3 GHz with MeerKAT, 3h at 2.4 GHz with Murriyang and 5.7h at simultaneous 2.3 GHz and 8.4 GHz observations with the Deep Space Network. We encourage further follow-up to establish a possible repeating nature.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-scale radio pulses, which originate in distant galaxies and are produced by unknown sources. The mystery remains partially because of the typical difficulty in localising FRBs to host galaxies. Accurate localisations delivered by the Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients (CRAFT) survey now provide an opportunity to study the host galaxies and potential transient counterparts of FRBs at a large range of wavelengths. In this work, we investigate whether the first three FRBs accurately localised by CRAFT have supernova-like transient counterparts. We o…
The objects that emit extragalatic fast radio bursts (FRBs) remain unidentified. Studies of the host galaxies and environments of accurately localised ($\lesssim1$ arcsec) FRBs promise to deliver critical insights into the nature of their progenitors. Here we demonstrate the effects of observational selection biases on analyses of the distributions of FRB host-galaxy properties (including star-formation rate, SFR, and stellar mass, $M_{*}$), and on the distributions of FRB offsets from the centres of their hosts. We consider the effects of "radio selection", wherein FRBs with larger dispersion…
Combining high time and frequency resolution full-polarisation spectra of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) with knowledge of their host galaxy properties provides an opportunity to study both the emission mechanism generating them and the impact of their propagation through their local environment, host galaxy, and the intergalactic medium. The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope has provided the first ensemble of bursts with this information. In this paper, we present the high time and spectral resolution, full polarisation observations of five localised FRBs to complement …
Nova explosions are caused by global thermonuclear runaways triggered in the surface layers of accreting white dwarfs. It has been predicted that localised thermonuclear bursts on white dwarfs can also take place, similar to Type I X-ray bursts observed in accreting neutron stars. Unexplained rapid bursts from the binary system TV Columbae, in which mass is accreted onto a moderately-strong magnetised white dwarf from a low-mass companion, have been observed on several occasions in the past $\approx40$ years. During these bursts the optical/UV luminosity increases by a factor of $>3$ in less t…
A MeerKAT search for persistent radio sources towards twenty-five localised Fast Radio Bursts
North-West University（西北大学）；University of South Africa（南非大学）；University of Nigeria（尼日利亚大学）；National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS)（国家理论与计算科学研究所）；South African Radio Astronomy Observatory（南非射电天文台）；Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester（曼彻斯特大学物理与天文学系乔德雷克天体物理学中心）
Intense, millisecond-duration bursts of radio waves have been detected from beyond the Milky Way [1]. Their extragalactic origins are evidenced by their large dispersion measures, which are greater than expected for propagation through the Milky Way interstellar medium alone, and imply contributions from the intergalactic medium and potentially host galaxies [2]. Although several theories exist for the sources of these fast radio bursts, their intensities, durations and temporal structures suggest coherent emission from highly magnetised plasma [3,4]. Two sources have been observed to repeat […
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief, bright, extragalactic radio flashes. Their physical origin remains unknown, but dozens of possible models have been postulated. Some FRB sources exhibit repeat bursts. Though over a hundred FRB sources have been discovered to date, only four have been localised and associated with a host galaxy, with just one of the four known to repeat. The properties of the host galaxies, and the local environments of FRBs, provide important clues about their physical origins. However, the first known repeating FRB has been localised to a low-metallicity, irregular dwarf g…
Localisation and host galaxy identification of new Fast Radio Bursts with MeerKAT
ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy（荷兰射电天文研究所）；ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)（引力波发现卓越研究中心）；Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学天体物理学系）；Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California Santa Cruz（加州大学圣克鲁斯分校天体物理学系）；Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU)（宇宙物理与数学研究所（Kavli IPMU））；Division of Science, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan（日本国立天文台科学部）；Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie（马克斯·普朗克射电天文研究所）；University of Dodoma, College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences（多多马大学自然与理学院）；Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester（曼彻斯特大学乔德雷尔银行天体物理学中心）
The population of fast radio bursts (FRBs) will continue to diverge into two groups depending on their method of discovery: those which can be localised, and those which cannot. Events potentially less useful for astronomical and cosmological purposes due to limited localisation will accumulate with the advent of new facilities and continued efforts by, e.g., the SUPERB collaboration, which may require afterglows or multi-wavelength counterparts for sub-arcsecond localisation. It is important to exploit these sources to their maximum scientific potential. We perform analysis of FRB dispersion …
Fast radio bursts are millisecond-duration radio pulses of extragalactic origin. A recent statistical analysis has found that the burst energetics of the repeating source FRB 121102 follow a power-law, with an exponent that is curiously consistent with the Gutenberg-Richter law for earthquakes. This hints that repeat-bursters may be compact objects undergoing violent tectonic activity. For young magnetars, possessing crustal magnetic fields which are both strong ($B \gtrsim 10^{15}$ G) and highly multipolar, Hall drift can instigate significant field rearrangements even on $\lesssim$ century l…
We present the results of a multiwavelength campaign of FRB 20201124A, the third closest repeating fast radio burst recently localized in a nearby (z=0.0978) galaxy. Deep VLA observations led to the detection of quiescent radio emission, also marginally visible in X-rays with Chandra. Imaging at 22 GHz allowed us to resolve the source on a scale of $\gtrsim$ 1 arcsec and locate it at the position of the FRB, within an error of 0.2 arcsec. EVN and e-MERLIN observations sampled small angular scales, from 2 to 100 mas, providing tight upper limits on the presence of a compact source and evidence …
The majority of fast radio bursts (FRBs) are poorly localised, hindering their potential scientific yield as galactic, intergalactic, and cosmological probes. LOFT-e, a digital backend for the U.K.'s e-MERLIN seven-telescope interferometer will provide commensal search and real-time detection of FRBs, taking full advantage of its field of view (FoV), sensitivity, and observation time. Upon burst detection, LOFT-e will store raw data offline, enabling the sub-arcsecond localisation provided by e-MERLIN and expanding the pool of localised FRBs. The high-time resolution backend will additionally …
The recent increase in well-localised fast radio bursts (FRBs) has facilitated in-depth studies of global FRB host properties, the source circumburst medium, and the potential impacts of these environments on the burst properties. The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) has localised 11 FRBs with sub-arcsecond to arcsecond precision, leading to sub-galaxy localisation regions in some cases and those covering much of the host galaxy in others. The method used to astrometrically register the FRB image frame for ASKAP, in order to align it with images taken at other wavelengths, …
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are bright, millisecond-duration radio pulses whose origins are unknown. To date, only one (FRB 121102) out of several dozen has been seen to repeat, though the extent to which it is exceptional remains unclear. We discuss detecting repetition from FRBs, which will be very important for understanding their physical origin, and which also allows for host galaxy localisation. We show how the combination of instrument sensitivity, beamshapes, and individual FRB luminosity functions affect the detection of sources whose repetition is not necessarily described by a homogene…
We report the findings of a uGMRT observing campaign on FRB 180916.J0158+65, discovered recently to show a 16.35-day periodicity of its active cycle. We observed the source at 550-750 MHz for $\sim 2$ hours each during three successive cycles at the peak of its expected active period. We find 0, 12, and 3 bursts respectively, implying a highly variable bursting rate even within the active phase. We consistently detect faint bursts with spectral energies only an order of magnitude higher than the Galactic burst source SGR~1935+2154. The times of arrival of the detected bursts rule out many poss…
Recent arcsecond localizations of Fast Radio Bursts and identifications of their host galaxies confirmed their extragalactic origin.While FRB 121102 resides in the bright region of a dwarf star forming galaxy, other FRBs reside in more massive galaxies and are related to older stellar populations. We compare the host galaxy properties of {nine} FRBs with those of several types of stellar transients: from young to old population, long duration gamma ray bursts (LGRBs), superluminous supernovae (SLSNe), Type Ib/Ic supernovae (SN Ibc), Type II supernovae (SN II), type Ia supernovae (SN Ia), and s…
We present the first interferometric detections of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), an enigmatic new class of astrophysical transient. In a 180-day survey of the Southern sky we discovered 3 FRBs at 843 MHz with the UTMOST array, as part of commissioning science during a major ongoing upgrade. The wide field of view of UTMOST ($\approx 9$ deg$^{2}$) is well suited to FRB searches. The primary beam is covered by 352 partially overlapping fan-beams, each of which is searched for FRBs in real time with pulse widths in the range 0.655 to 42 ms, and dispersion measures $\leq$2000 pc cm$^{-3}$. Detections …
Fast radio burst (FRB) 191001 is localised at the spiral arm of a highly star-forming galaxy with an observed dispersion measure (DM) of 507 pc cm$^{-3}$. Subtracting the contributions of the intergalactic medium and our Milky Way Galaxy from the total DM, one gets an excess of around 200 pc cm$^{-3}$, which may have been contributed by the host galaxy of the FRB. It is found in this work that the position of FRB 191001 is consistent with the distribution of supernovae (SNe) in the spiral arm of their parent galaxies. If this event is indeed due to an SN explosion, then, from the analysis of t…
We report the observations of the highly active FRb20201124A with the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at 550-750~MHz. These observations in the incoherent array mode simultaneously provided an arcsecond localization of bursts from \rss, the discovery of persistent radio emission associated with the host galaxy, and the detection of 48 bursts. Using the brightest burst in the sample ($F= 108~{\rm Jy~ms}$) we find a structure-maximizing dispersion measure of $410.8 \pm 0.5~{\rm pc~cm}^{-3}$. We find that our observations are complete down to a fluence level of $10~{\rm Jy~ms}$, above wh…
The origin and phenomenology of the Fast Radio Burst (FRB) remains unknown despite more than a decade of efforts. Though several models have been proposed to explain the observed data, none is able to explain alone the variety of events so far recorded. The leading models consider magnetars as potential FRB sources. The recent detection of FRBs from the galactic magnetar SGR J1935+2154 seems to support them. Still, emission duration and energetic budget challenge all these models. Like for other classes of objects initially detected in a single band, it appeared clear that any solution to the …
Since the launch of the highly successful and ongoing Swift mission, the field of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has undergone a revolution. The arcsecond GRB localizations available within just a few minutes of the GRB alert has signified the continual sampling of the GRB evolution through the prompt to afterglow phases revealing unexpected flaring and plateau phases, the first detection of a kilonova coincident with a short GRB, and the identification of samples of low-luminosity, ultra-long, and highly dust extinguished GRBs. The increased numbers of GRB afterglows, GRB-supernova detections, redsh…
FRB20250613A: a remarkable repeating FRB with apparent millisecond-timescale scattering variations
Swinburne University of Technology（斯威本科技大学）；Northwestern University（西北大学）；Curtin University（科廷大学）；The University of Sydney（悉尼大学）；University of Edinburgh（爱丁堡大学）
Fast radio bursts are astronomical radio flashes of unknown physical nature with durations of milliseconds. Their dispersive arrival times suggest an extragalactic origin and imply radio luminosities orders of magnitude larger than any other kind of known short-duration radio transient. Thus far, all FRBs have been detected with large single-dish telescopes with arcminute localizations, and attempts to identify their counterparts (source or host galaxy) have relied on contemporaneous variability of field sources or the presence of peculiar field stars or galaxies. These attempts have not resul…
We present a search for radio afterglows from long gamma-ray bursts using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). Our search used the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey, covering the entire celestial sphere south of declination $+41^\circ$, and three epochs of the Variables and Slow Transients Pilot Survey (Phase 1), covering $\sim 5,000$ square degrees per epoch. The observations we used from these surveys spanned a nine-month period from 2019 April 21 to 2020 January 11. We crossmatched radio sources found in these surveys with 779 well-localised (to $\leq 15''$) long gamma-ray b…
MeerTRAP is a real-time untargeted search project using the MeerKAT telescope to find single pulses from fast radio transients and pulsars. It is performed commensally with the MeerKAT large survey projects (LSPs), using data from up to 64 of MeerKAT's 13.96~m dishes to form hundreds of coherent beams on sky, each of which is processed in real time to search for millisecond-duration pulses. We present the first twelve Galactic sources discovered by MeerTRAP, with DMs in the range of 33--381~pc~cm$^{-3}$. One source may be Galactic or extragalactic depending on the Galactic electron density mod…
Very long baseline interferometric (VLBI) localisations of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) have demonstrated a diversity of local environments: from nearby star-forming regions to globular clusters. Here we report the VLBI localisation of FRB 20201124A using an ad-hoc array of dishes that also participate in the European VLBI Network (EVN). In our campaign, we detected 18 total bursts from FRB 20201124A at two separate epochs. By combining the visibilities from both observing epochs, we were able to localise FRB 20201124A with a 1-$σ$ error of 4.5 milliarcseconds (mas). We use the relativel…
Through a glass, darkly: a combined framework for estimating fast radio burst host galaxy and population properties in an era of uncertain host identification
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University（国际射电天文中心，科廷大学）；Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz（天文学与天体物理学系，加州大学圣克鲁兹分校）；School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Macquarie University（数学与物理科学学院，麦考瑞大学）；Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University（天体科学系，普林斯顿大学）
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are extremely energetic pulses of millisecond duration and unknown origin. In order to understand the phenomenon that emits these pulses, targeted and untargeted searches have been performed for multi-wavelength counterparts, including the optical. The objective of this work is to search for optical transients at the position of 8 well-localized FRBs, after the arrival of the burst on different time-scales (typically at one day, several months, and one year after FRB detection) in order to compare with known transient optical light curves. We used the Las Cumbres Obser…
Unveiling the Local Environment of FRB 20220912A: Sub-arcsecond $4-26$ GHz Radio Continuum Mapping
National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research（塔塔基础研究所射电天体物理国家中心）；Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur（坎普尔印度理工学院）；McGill University（麦吉尔大学）；Northwestern University（西北大学）；University of Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹大学）
Understanding the origin of fast radio bursts (FRB's) is a central unsolved problem in astrophysics that is severely hampered by their poorly determined distance scale. Determining the redshift distribution of FRB's appears to require arcsecond angular resolution, in order to associate FRB's with host galaxies. In this paper, we forecast prospects for determining the redshift distribution without host galaxy associations, by cross-correlating FRB's with a galaxy catalog such as the SDSS photometric sample. The forecasts are extremely promising: a survey such as CHIME/FRB that measures catalogs…
Sub-arcsecond localization of the repeating fast radio burst FRB 121102 revealed its coincidence with a dwarf host galaxy and a steady (`quiescent') non-thermal radio source. We show that the properties of the host galaxy are consistent with those of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRB) and hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe-I). Both LGRBs and SLSNe-I were previously hypothesized to be powered by the electromagnetic spin-down of newly-formed, strongly-magnetized neutron stars with millisecond birth rotation periods (`millisecond magnetars'). This motivates considering a scenario wh…
We report on the discovery of FRB 20200120E, a repeating fast radio burst (FRB) with low dispersion measure (DM), detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME)/FRB project. The source DM of 87.82 pc cm$^{-3}$ is the lowest recorded from an FRB to date, yet is significantly higher than the maximum expected from the Milky Way interstellar medium in this direction (~ 50 pc cm$^{-3}$). We have detected three bursts and one candidate burst from the source over the period 2020 January-November. The baseband voltage data for the event on 2020 January 20 enabled a sky localiza…
We report on a search for persistent radio emission from the one-off Fast Radio Burst (FRB) 20190714A, as well as from two repeating FRBs, 20190711A and 20171019A, using the MeerKAT radio telescope. For FRB 20171019A we also conducted simultaneous observations with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) in very high energy gamma rays and searched for signals in the ultraviolet, optical, and X-ray bands. For this FRB, we obtain a UV flux upper limit of 1.39x10^-16 erg/cm^-2/s/Amstrong, X-ray limit of ~ 6.6x10^-14 erg/cm^-2/s and a limit on the very-high-energy gamma-ray flux (Phi) (E > …
The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope has started to localize Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) to arcsecond accuracy from the detection of a single pulse, allowing their host galaxies to be reliably identified. We discuss the global properties of the host galaxies of the first four FRBs localized by ASKAP, which lie in the redshift range $0.11<z<0.48$. All four are massive galaxies (log( $M_{*}/ M_{\odot}$) $\sim 9.4 -10.4$) with modest star-formation rates of up to $2M_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$ -- very different to the host galaxy of the first repeating FRB 121102, which is a dwarf galaxy with a hi…
An archival search for gamma-ray bursts gravitationally lensed by galaxy clusters
Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth（宇宙学与引力研究所，朴茨茅斯大学）；School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham（物理与天文学学院，伯明翰大学）；Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy, University of Birmingham（引力波天文学研究所，伯明翰大学）；Department of Astrophysics, University of Vienna（天体物理学系，维也纳大学）
We demonstrate the blind interferometric detection and localization of two fast radio bursts (FRBs) with 2- and 25-arcsecond precision on the 400-m baseline between the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) and the CHIME Pathfinder. In the same spirit as very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), the telescopes were synchronized to separate clocks, and the channelized voltage (herein referred to as "baseband") data were saved to disk with correlation performed offline. The simultaneous wide field of view and high sensitivity required for blind FRB searches implies a high data r…
We present the analysis of radio interferometric 2-s images from a MeerKAT observation of the repeating fast radio burst FRB121102 on September 2019, during which 11 distinct pulses have been previously detected using high time and frequency resolution data cubes. In this work, we detected 6 out of the 11 bursts in the image plane at 1.48 GHz with a minimum peak signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 5 σ and a fluence detection limit of 0.512 Jy ms. These constitute the first detections of a fast radio burst (FRB) or a radio transient using 2-s timescale images with MeerKAT data. Analysis of the fitte…
A stochastic forward model for the intergalactic dispersion-measure distribution of Fast Radio Bursts
University of Cape Town（开普敦大学）；African Institute for Mathematical Sciences（非洲数学科学研究所）；National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS)（国家理论与计算科学研究所）；Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto（欧罗普雷图联邦大学）；INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste（意大利国家天体物理研究所的里雅斯特天文台）；IFPU – Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe（宇宙基础物理研究所）；Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo（圣埃斯皮里图联邦大学）
