The Discovery of Frbs
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Credit: Swinburne Fast Radio Bursts : The Story SoStory Far... Bursts: The Fast Radio DuncanLorimer, Dept. Physics and of Astronomy, WestVirginia University Credit: Joeri van Leeuwen Phinney & Taylor (1979) Credit: Aurore Simonet “...the next few decades will undoubtedly bring about a greater understanding of radio-bursting objects, including Crab-like pulsars in other galaxies, counterparts to high-energy bursting sources, and other classes of objects that are yet to be discovered.” Rotating Radio Transients (RRATs) Credit: Froney Crawford Credit: ATNF Credit: Credit: Maura McLaughlin Credit: fas.org End up with a search over “DM” a search upwith End Single-pulse search pipeline DM Cordes & McLaughlin (2003) An unexpected signal! An unexpected signal! Interference Questions: * Why so bright? * Why no weaker events? * Detectable in other surveys? Even my own wife begins to doubt... “Moreover, the lack of highly dispersed celestial signals is the evidence that the Lorimer burst is unlikely to belong to a cosmological source population.” DM = 746 pc/cc 746 = DM ms W=8 eane et al. 2011/2012 Credit: K but then, in 2012, alongcame then,in2012, this but The burst is also consistent with the radio signal theorised … from an annihilatingfrom mini black hole.” “ … more good news followed in 2013 • Lorimer bursts? • Sparkers? • FARTS? • FRBs Cosmological redshift Cosmological redshift Credit: Thornton et al. (2013) DM delay in FRB 110220 FRB in delay DM Energy and redshift estimates Credit: Spitler et al. (2014) 2014: an FRB atArecibo an 2014: • Credit: Masui et al. (2015) 2015: an FRB atGBT an 2015: • Credit: Masui et al. (2015) 2015: an FRB atGBT an 2015: Scattering andScattering scintillation seen! • Credit: Petroff et al. (2015) 2015: Perytonmysterysolved... 2015: No compelling counterparts compelling No far) periodicity (so No thanothers? Widths broader – – – 2016: Arecibo FRB repeats! Arecibo FRB 2016: Credit: Spitler et al. and Scholz et al. (2016) DM – redshift connection …. missingredshift baryons?!?! connection …. DM – Fading radio Fading source Host galaxy found! – – – 2016: FRB 150418 Counterpart? Counterpart? FRB 150418 2016: Credit: Kean et al. and Williams and Berger et al. (2016) DM – redshift connection gone... baryons still missing redshift connection gone... DM – The radio source reappeared!!! source radio The instead→ AGN Variable likelyby chance – – – 2016: FRB 150418 Counterpart? Counterpart? FRB 150418 2016: Credit: Kean et al. and Williams and Berger et al. (2016) We still don't know what they are! • Extra-terrestrial – Alien signals (Luan & Goldreich 2014) • Galactic – Flare stars (Loeb et al. 2014) • Extragalactic – Favored cosmic catastrophe (Just about everybody 2014) – Multiple FRB populations??? – More followup + counterparts – My bias: pulsar/magnetar models More theories than bursts! • Colliding compact objects (e.g. NS-NS) • Supernovae • Collapsing NS → BH (blitzar) • Black hole absorbing NSs • Giant pulses from pulsars/magnetars • Neutron star – asteroid belt interaction • More exotic (strange) star interactions • Galactic Flare Stars • Cosmic strings • White holes FRBs at Arecibo - ALFABURST • 7 beams – commensal observing • 56 MHz current bandwidth • DM range out to 10,000 pc/cc • Realtime pipeline (similar to Parkes) [credit: Chennamangalam/Karastergiou] GBTrans [Ellingson et al.] – 1.4 GHz / 50 MHz – Realtime processing – FRB rate ~1/month? (My) bold predictions • 2016: counterparts found – Detection with VLA?? • 2020: 100s FRBs found – CHIME + others • 2025: 1000s of FRBs known – SKA and its pathfinders • 2030: FRBs essential cosmological tools – Many papers on this already! .