Fast radio burst

A fast radio burst (FRB) is a transient celestial radio pulse lasting only a few milliseconds (at any one frequency). The entire pulse is recorded over a few 100 ms with the frequency declining in a characteristic fashion.[1] As of March 2015 eleven have been detected, all but one by the Parkes radio telescope.

Their origin is not known: they are generally thought to be extragalactic but it has also been suggested that they may come from nearby stars.[2]

On January 19, 2015, astronomers at Australia's national science agency (CSIRO) reported that, for the first time, a fast radio burst had been observed live (at Parkes).[3]

FRBs are identified by the date the signal was recorded, as "YYMMDD" - eg one on 26 June 2011 would be called FRB 110626.[4] The oldest so far found is FRB 010621.

Lorimer burst

D. R. Lorimer and others analyzed archival survey data and found a 30-jansky dispersed burst that occurred in 24 Aug 2001,[1] less than 5 milliseconds in duration, located 3° from the Small Magellanic Cloud. They reported that the burst properties argue against a physical association with our Galaxy or the Small Magellanic Cloud. The burst became known as the Lorimer burst.[5] Lorimer et al argue that current models for the free electron content in the universe imply that the burst is less than 1 gigaparsec distant. The fact that no further bursts were seen in 90 hours of additional observations implies that it was a singular event such as a supernova or merger of relativistic objects.[1] It is suggested that hundreds of similar events could occur every day and, if detected, could serve as cosmological probes.[6]

Radio pulsar surveys such as Astropulse and SETI@home offer one of the few opportunities to monitor the radio sky for impulsive burst-like events with millisecond durations.

Further developments

In 2010 there was a new report of 16 similar pulses, clearly of terrestrial origin, from the Parkes radio telescope, and given the name Perytons.[7] In 2015 some perytons were shown to be generated when microwave oven doors were opened during operation, with emission generated from the magnetron.[8]

In 2013 four bursts were identified that supported the likelihood of extragalactic sources.[4]

An observation in 2012 of an FRB (FRB 121102) in the direction of Auriga in the northern hemisphere using the Arecibo radio telescope has confirmed the extragalactic origin of fast radio pulses by an effect known as plasma dispersion. Victoria Kaspi of the McGill University also confirms the initial estimate of 10,000 FRBs per day over the entire sky.[9]

FRB 140514, caught 'live', was found to be 21% (+/- 7%) circularly polarised.[3]

FRBs discovered so far (up to 2015) have had dispersion measures that are close to integer multiples of 187.5 cm−3 pc, suggesting an artificial origin (perytons).[10]

Hypotheses

Because of the isolated nature of the observed phenomenon, the nature of the source remains speculative. As of 2015, there is no generally accepted explanation. The emission region is estimated to be no larger than a few hundred kilometers. If the bursts come from cosmological distances, their sources must be very bright.[11] One possible explanation would be a collision between very dense objects like black holes or neutron stars. Blitzars are another proposed explanation.[11] It has been suggested that there is a connection to gamma ray bursts.[12] More recently, it has been proposed that FRBs could be originated in black hole explosions: if so, FRBs would be the first detection of Quantum Gravity effects.[13]

List of bursts

name date-time
UTC for 1581.804688 MHz		 RA
J2000		 dec
J2000		 DM
cm−3pc		 DM/187.5
(rounded)[10]		 width
ms		 peak flux
Jy		 notes
FRB 010621[14] 2001/06/21 13:02:10.795 18h52′-08°29′7463.9 7.8 0.4
FRB 010724[1] 2001/07/24 19:50:01.6301h18′06″ -75°12′19″ 3752.0 4.630 (Lorimer Burst)
FRB 011025[15] 2001/01/25 00:29:13.23 19h07′-40°37′7904.29.40.3
FRB 110220[4] 2011/02/20 01:55:48.95722h34′-12°24′944.385.05.61.3
FRB 110627[4] 2011/06/27 21:33:17.47421h03′-44°44′723.03.9<1.40.4
FRB 110703[4] 2011/07/03 18:59:40.59123h30′-02°52′1103.65.9<4.30.5
FRB 120127[4] 2012/01/27 08:11:21.72323h15′-18°25′553.32.9<1.10.5
FRB 121002[16] 2012/10/02 13:09:18.402 18h14′-85°11′1628.76 8.72.1,3.70.35double pulse 5.1 ms apart
FRB 121102[17] 2012/02/11 06:35:53.244 05h32′33°055572.93.00.4 by Arecibo RT
FRB 131104[18] 2013/11/04 18:04:01.206h44′ -51°17′ 779.0 4.1<0.64 Carina Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
FRB 140514[19] 2014/05/14 17:14:11.06 22h34′-12°18′562.73.02.80.47

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 D. R. Lorimer; M. Bailes; M. A. McLaughlin; D. J. Narkevic et al. (2007-09-27). "A Bright Millisecond Radio Burst of Extragalactic Origin". Science Magazine (Science) 318 (5851): 777–780. arXiv:0709.4201. Bibcode:2007Sci...318..777L. doi:10.1126/science.1147532. Retrieved 2010-06-23.
  2. ↑ "Fast Radio Bursts Might Come From Nearby Stars", Harvard-Smithsonian centre for Astrophysics, December 12, 2013
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Cosmic radio burst caught red-handed". Royal Astronomical Society. 2015-01-19.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 D. Thornton; B. Stappers; M. Bailes; B. Barsdell et al. (2013-07-05). "A Population of Fast Radio Bursts at Cosmological Distances". Science. arXiv:1307.1628. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
  5. ↑ Chiao, May (2013). "No flash in the pan". Nature Physics 9 (8): 454–454. doi:10.1038/nphys2724.
  6. ↑ Duncan Lorimer (West Virginia University, USA); Matthew Bailes (Swinburne University); Maura McLaughlin (West Virginia University, USA); David Narkevic (West Virginia University, USA) et al. (October 2007). "A bright millisecond radio burst of extragalactic origin". Australia Telescope National Facility. Retrieved 2010-06-23.
  7. ↑ Sarah Burke-Spolaor; Matthew Bailes; Ronald Ekers; Jean-Pierre Macquart; Fronefield Crawford III (2010). "Radio Bursts with Extragalactic Spectral Characteristics Show Terrestrial Origins". arXiv:1009.5392v1 [astro-ph.CO].
  8. ↑ "Identifying the source of perytons at the Parkes radio telescope", Cornell University Library, April 9, 2015
  9. ↑ "Radio-burst discovery deepens astrophysics mystery" July 10 2014, Max Planck Inst
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Hippke, Michael; Domainko, Wilfried F.; Learned, John G. (30 March 2015), Discrete steps in dispersion measures of Fast Radio Bursts, arXiv:1503.05245
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "A Brilliant Flash, Then Nothing: New “Fast Radio Bursts” Mystify Astronomers", Scientific American July 9, 2013
  12. ↑ V. Ravi; P. D. Lasky (2014-05-20). "The birth of black holes: neutron star collapse times, gamma-ray bursts and fast radio bursts". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society) 441 (3): 2433. Bibcode:2014MNRAS.441.2433R. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu720.
  13. ↑ A. Barrau; C. Rovelli & F. Vidotto (2014-09-14). "Fast radio bursts and white hole signals". Physical Review D (Phys. Rev. D) 90 (12): 127503. Bibcode:2014PhRvD..90l7503B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.90.127503. Retrieved 2014-12-17.
  14. ↑ Keane, E. F.; Stappers, B. W.; Kramer, M.; Lyne, A. G. (September 2012). "On the origin of a highly dispersed coherent radio burst". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters 425 (1): L71–L75. Bibcode:2012MNRAS.425L..71K. doi:10.1111/j.1745-3933.2012.01306.x.arXiv:1206.4135
  15. ↑ Burke-Spolaor, Sarah; Bannister, Keith W. (11 August 2014). "The Galactic Position Dependence of Fast Radio Bursts and the Discovery of FRB011025". The Astrophysical Journal 792 (1): 19. Bibcode:2014ApJ...792...19B. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/792/1/19.arXiv:1407.0400
  16. ↑ Dan Thornton (September 2013). The High Time Resolution Radio Sky (PDF) (Thesis). Manchester. p. 140-147.
  17. ↑ arXiv:1404.2934 Fast Radio Burst Discovered in the Arecibo Pulsar ALFA Survey
  18. ↑ Ravi, V.; Shannon, R. M.; Jameson, A. (14 January 2015). "A FAST RADIO BURST IN THE DIRECTION OF THE CARINA DWARF SPHEROIDAL GALAXY". The Astrophysical Journal 799 (1): L5. Bibcode:2015ApJ...799L...5R. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/799/1/L5.arXiv:1412.1599
  19. ↑ arXiv:1412.0342 Petroff, E.; Bailes, M.; Barr, E. D.; Barsdell, B. R.; Bhat, N. D. R.; Bian, F.; Burke-Spolaor, S.; Caleb, M.; Champion, D.; Chandra, P.; Da Costa, G.; Delvaux, C.; Flynn, C.; Gehrels, N.; Greiner, J.; Jameson, A.; Johnston, S.; Kasliwal, M. M.; Keane, E. F.; Keller, S.; Kocz, J.; Kramer, M.; Leloudas, G.; Malesani, D.; Mulchaey, J. S.; Ng, C.; Ofek, E. O.; Perley, D. A.; Possenti, A. et al. (19 January 2015). "A real-time fast radio burst: polarization detection and multiwavelength follow-up". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 447 (1): 246–255. Bibcode:2015MNRAS.447..246P. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu2419.