Fast radio burst

A fast radio burst (FRB) is a high energy astrophysical phenomenon manifested as a transient radio pulse lasting only a few milliseconds. FRBs show a frequency-dependent dispersion consistent with propagation through an ionized plasma.[1] As of March 2015 eleven bursts have been detected, all but one by the Parkes radio telescope.

The origin of FRBs is not known: they are generally thought to be extragalactic due to the anomalously high amount of pulse dispersion observed. It has also been suggested that they may originate from nearby stars.[2] It has also been speculated that they might be signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.[3][4]

FRBs are identified by the date the signal was recorded, as "YYMMDD" - e.g. one on 26 June 2011 would be called FRB 110626.[5] The oldest so far found is FRB 010621. 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).[6]

Closely related to FRBs are perytons, dispersed pulses which share some of the same characteristics as FRBs, but are of terrestrial origin. Perytons were shown in April 2015 to be due to emissions from premature opening of microwave oven doors in the Parkes observatory cafeteria,[7] while FRBs remain as most likely high energy astrophysical sources.

Lorimer Burst

The burst was discovered in archived data taken in 2001 by the Parkes radio dish in Australia.[8] Analysis of the survey data found a 30-jansky dispersed burst that occurred on 24 August 2001,[1] less than 5 milliseconds in duration, located 3° from the Small Magellanic Cloud. The reported burst properties argue against a physical association with the Milky Way galaxy or the Small Magellanic Cloud. The burst became known as the Lorimer burst.[9] The discoverers 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.[10]

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, detected by the Parkes radio telescope, and given the name perytons.[11] In 2015 some perytons were shown to be generated when microwave oven doors were opened during operation, with emission generated from the magnetron.[12]

In 2013 four bursts were identified that supported the likelihood of extragalactic sources.[5]

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.[13]

FRB 140514, caught 'live', was found to be 21% (+/- 7%) circularly polarised.[6]

FRBs discovered up till 2015 had dispersion measures that were close to multiples of 187.5 cm-3 pc.[14] However subsequent observations do not fit this pattern.

In 2015, FRB 110523 was discovered in archival data from the Green Bank Telescope.[15] It was the first FRB for which linear polarization was detected (allowing, with the detection of circular polarisation, a calculation of Faraday rotation). Measurement of the signal's dispersion delay suggested that this burst is of extragalactic origin, possibly up to 6 billion light years away.[16]

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.[17] One possible explanation would be a collision between very dense objects like collapsing black holes or neutron stars.[8] Blitzars are another proposed explanation.[17] It has been suggested that there is a connection to gamma ray bursts.[18][19] In 2007, just after the publication of the e-print with the first discovery, it has been proposed that FRBs can be related to hyperflares of magnetars.[20] [21] In 2015 three studies support the magnetar hypothesis.[22][15] [23][24] It has also been proposed that if FRBs originate in black hole explosions, FRBs would be the first detection of quantum gravity effects.[8][25]

List of bursts

name date-time
UTC for 1581.804688 MHz		 RA
J2000		 dec
J2000		 DM
cm−3pc		 width
ms		 peak flux
Jy		 notes
FRB 010724[1] 2001/07/24 19:50:01.6301h18′ -75°12′ 3754.630 (Lorimer Burst)
FRB 010621[26] 2001/06/21 13:02:10.795 18h52′-08°29′7467.8 0.4
FRB 110220[5] 2011/02/20 01:55:48.95722h34′-12°24′944.385.61.3
FRB 110627[5] 2011/06/27 21:33:17.47421h03′-44°44′723.0<1.40.4
FRB 110703[5] 2011/07/03 18:59:40.59123h30′-02°52′1103.6<4.30.5
FRB 120127[5] 2012/01/27 08:11:21.72323h15′-18°25′553.3<1.10.5
FRB 011025[27] 2001/10/25 00:29:13.23 19h07′-40°37′7909.40.3
FRB 121002[28] 2012/10/02 13:09:18.402 18h14′-85°11′1628.76 2.1,3.70.35double pulse 5.1 ms apart
FRB 121002[29]2012/10/02 13:09:18.50 18h14' -85°11' 1629.18 <0.3 >2.3
FRB 121102[30] 2012/11/02 06:35:53.244 05h32′33°05'5573.00.4 by Arecibo RT
FRB 131104[31] 2013/11/04 18:04:01.206h44′ -51°17′ 779.0 <0.64 'near' Carina Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
FRB 140514[32] 2014/05/14 17:14:11.06 22h34′-12°18′562.72.80.47 21 ± 7 per cent (3σ) circular polarization
FRB 090625[29] 2009/06/25 21:53:52.85 03h07' -29°55′ 899.6 <1.9 >2.2
FRB 130626[29]2013/06/26 14:56:00.06 16h27' -07°27' 952.4 <0.12 >1.5
FRB 130628[29]2013/06/28 03:58:00.02 09h03' +03°26' 469.88 <0.05 >1.2
FRB 130729[29] 2013/07/29 09:01:52.64 13h41' -05°59' 861 <4 >3.5
FRB 110523 [15][16][33] 2011/05/23 21h45' -00°12' 623.30 1.73 700-900 MHz at Green Bank RT, detection of both circular and linear polarization.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 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:0709.4301. 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. ↑ Scoles, Sarah (March 31, 2015). "Is this ET? Mystery of strange radio bursts from space". New Scientist. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
  4. ↑ Scoles, Sarah (4 April 2015). "Cosmic radio plays an alien tune". New Scientist 226 (3015): 8–9. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(15)30056-7. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 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.
  6. 1 2 "Cosmic radio burst caught red-handed". Royal Astronomical Society. 2015-01-19.
  7. ↑ "Identifying the source of Perytons at the Parkes radio telescope" 2015
  8. 1 2 3 McKee, Maggie (27 September 2007). "Extragalactic radio burst puzzles astronomers". New Scientist. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  9. ↑ Chiao, May (2013). "No flash in the pan". Nature Physics 9 (8): 454–454. Bibcode:2013NatPh...9..454C. doi:10.1038/nphys2724.
  10. ↑ 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.
  11. ↑ 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].
  12. ↑ "Identifying the source of perytons at the Parkes radio telescope", Cornell University Library, April 9, 2015
  13. ↑ "Radio-burst discovery deepens astrophysics mystery" July 10 2014, Max Planck Inst
  14. ↑ arXiv:1503.05245 Hippke, Michael; Domainko, Wilfried F.; Learned, John G. (30 March 2015), Discrete steps in dispersion measures of Fast Radio Bursts, arXiv:1503.05245
  15. 1 2 3 K. Masui; et al. (2015-12-03). "Dense magnetized plasma associated with a fast radio burst". Nature 528 (7580). doi:10.1038/nature15769.
  16. 1 2 Team finds detailed record of mysterious fast radio burst
  17. 1 2 "A Brilliant Flash, Then Nothing: New “Fast Radio Bursts” Mystify Astronomers", Scientific American July 9, 2013
  18. ↑ B. Zhang (2014-01-10). "A Possible Connection between Fast Radio Bursts and Gamma-Ray Bursts". The Astrophysical Journal Letters 780 (2): L21. arXiv:1310.4893. Bibcode:2014ApJ...780L..21Z. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/780/2/L21.
  19. ↑ 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.
  20. ↑ S. B. Popov; K. A. Postnov. "Hyperflares of SGRs as an engine for millisecond extragalactic radio bursts". arXiv:0710.2006. Bibcode:2007arXiv0710.2006P.
  21. ↑ "Those Blasts of Radio Waves from Deep Space? Not Aliens.". Phenomena. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  22. ↑ "Fast Radio Bursts Mystify Experts—for Now". www.scientificamerican.com. Retrieved 2015-12-04.
  23. ↑ Champion, D. J.; Petroff, E.; Kramer, M.; Keith, M. J.; Bailes, M.; Barr, E. D.; Bates, S. D.; Bhat, N. D. R.; Burgay, M. (2015-11-24). "Five new Fast Radio Bursts from the HTRU high latitude survey: first evidence for two-component bursts". arXiv:1511.07746.
  24. ↑ Kulkarni, S. R.; Ofek, E. O.; Neill, J. D. (2015-11-29). "The Arecibo Fast Radio Burst: Dense Circum-burst Medium". arXiv:1511.09137.
  25. ↑ 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. arXiv:1409.4031. Bibcode:2014PhRvD..90l7503B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.90.127503. Retrieved 2014-12-17.
  26. ↑ 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. arXiv:1206.4135. Bibcode:2012MNRAS.425L..71K. doi:10.1111/j.1745-3933.2012.01306.x.arXiv:1206.4135
  27. ↑ 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. arXiv:1407.0400. Bibcode:2014ApJ...792...19B. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/792/1/19.arXiv:1407.0400
  28. ↑ Dan Thornton (September 2013). The High Time Resolution Radio Sky (PDF) (Thesis). Manchester. p. 140-147.
  29. 1 2 3 4 5 "Five new Fast Radio Bursts from the HTRU high latitude survey: first evidence for two-component bursts" (PDF). arXiv.org repository. 24 November 2015. Retrieved 2015-11-27. D. J. Champion, E. Petroff, M. Kramer, M. J. Keith, M. Bailes, E. D. Barr, S. D. Bates, N. D. R. Bhat, M. Burgay, S. Burke-Spolaor, C. M. L. Flynn, A. Jameson, S. Johnston, C. Ng, L. Levin, A. Possenti, B. W. Stappers, W. van Straten, C. Tiburzi, A. G. Lyne
  30. ↑ arXiv:1404.2934 Fast Radio Burst Discovered in the Arecibo Pulsar ALFA Survey
  31. ↑ Ravi, V.; Shannon, R. M.; Jameson, A. (14 January 2015). "A Fast Radio Burst in the Direction of the Carine Dwarf Spheroildal Galaxy". The Astrophysical Journal 799 (1): L5. arXiv:1412.1599. Bibcode:2015ApJ...799L...5R. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/799/1/L5.arXiv:1412.1599
  32. ↑ 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. arXiv:1412.0342. Bibcode:2015MNRAS.447..246P. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu2419.
  33. ↑ FRB 110523 parameters
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